{"id":559873,"date":"2026-07-21T00:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T00:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/559873\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T00:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T00:37:08","slug":"andy-burnham-wastes-no-time-in-purging-his-government-of-starmer-allies-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/559873\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham wastes no time in purging his government of Starmer allies \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham<\/a> began his first day as the UK\u2019s new prime minister with a purge from government of ousted predecessor Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s loyalists.<\/p>\n

The former Greater Manchester mayor arrived on Downing Street after his appointment just before lunchtime with a message of unity. Yet he moved swiftly to gut the cabinet of many of Starmer\u2019s closest allies while reappointing a series of those he had sacked.<\/p>\n

Burnham also sprang a surprise by appointing the former defence secretary John Healey as his chancellor of the exchequer. The Westminster rumour mill had for weeks been consumed by an apparent battle for the job between left-leaning Ed Miliband<\/a> and the more conservative Shabana Mahmood.<\/p>\n

But in the end, Healey, who quit Starmer\u2019s government last month in a row over defence funding, stole through the middle to land the UK government\u2019s second-most powerful role. It also avoids a Labour Party civil war between backers of Mahmood and Miliband.<\/p>\n

After quitting Starmer\u2019s government on a point of principle after he believed defence funding was too low to keep Britain safe, Healey must now find the extra billions of pounds he argued was necessary to rebuild his country\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n

Miliband was made foreign secretary while Mahmood stayed on as home secretary, completing the UK government\u2019s four great offices of state alongside Burnham. Yvette Cooper has been appointed health secretary.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday, Starmer gave his final speech as prime minister on the sun-drenched cobblestones of Downing Street before his car swept down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace where he formally tendered his resignation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go with good grace, I go with a smile,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Behind him were gathered loyal staff and cabinet members, including his chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves, his deputy prime minister David Lammy, his chief secretary Darren Jones and housing secretary Steve Reed.<\/p>\n

Before the sun set in Whitehall, all had been sacked from their roles by Burnham. Lammy said afterwards that he had been prepared to stay on in cabinet but Burnham didn\u2019t want him to. Reeves\u2019s allies briefed that she had turned down an alternative role.<\/p>\n

Reed, meanwhile, took a swipe at Burnham and his allies who had levered Starmer from power after disastrous local-election results. Addressing Burnham in a public message, Reed said: \u201cI hope those who did not show loyalty to Keir will now show it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new prime minister continued with his appointments later into Monday, appointing \u200bWes Streeting as \u200bsecretary \u2060of state \u200cfor \u200cdefence<\/p>\n

Louise Haigh, who was forced out by Starmer as transport secretary in 2024, was the chief mastermind of Burnham\u2019s route back to Westminster and, ultimately, Downing Street. She was rewarded with one of the most powerful roles in the UK government, as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and head of the cabinet office that drives Number 10\u2019s agenda across Whitehall.<\/p>\n

There was a return to cabinet for Angela Rayner, who was previously forced from Starmer\u2019s government in a row over her tax affairs. She has since received a clean bill of health from Britain\u2019s tax authorities and will serve as housing minister.<\/p>\n

The new prime minister continued with his appointments later into Monday, appointing \u200bWes Streeting as \u200bsecretary \u2060of state \u200cfor \u200cdefence \u200band Miatta \u2060Fahnbulleh as \u200bsecretary \u200bof \u200cstate for \u200benergy security \u2060and net \u2060zero.<\/p>\n

Burnham also brought back Jonathan Reynolds as business \u200bminister. Reynolds was named secretary of \u2060state for business, innovation, science and \u200ctrade \u200cin \u200ban expanded role after losing his position as \u2060business \u200bminister to Peter Kyle \u200bin a reshuffle under \u200bStarmer.<\/p>\n

Pat McFadden and Bridget Phillipson were among the few Starmer loyalists to be reappointed, while Anneliese Midgley, who helped Haigh to oust Starmer, was also set to be rewarded with a senior role in government.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Burnham also took calls of congratulations from a slew of foreign leaders. He spoke to US president Donald Trump, whom he invited for a future visit to Manchester, where Burnham has pledged to move part of the Downing Street operation.<\/p>\n

He also spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to whom he gave Britain\u2019s continued backing in its war with Russia.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin also congratulated Burnham on his appointment as UK prime minister, promising to work closely with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement and we look forward to continuing the very good relationship we had with Keir Starmer and this government,\u201d said Martin.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mark Paul: Burnham embraces woman who shaped himOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

[\u00a0As it happened: Burnham springs surprise with Healey appointmentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham began his first day as the UK\u2019s new prime minister with a purge from government of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85530,72085,42,1194,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-559873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-andy-burnham","tag-downing-street","tag-headlines","tag-keir-starmer","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}