Britain’s likely next PM is expected to replace Rachel Reeves as Chancellor.
Burnham favourite to seize the keys to No10 (Image: Getty)
Keir Starmer’s premiership has collapsed into an all-out civil war with rumours that Andy Burnham’s ‘coronation’ could be scuppered by loyalists to the outgoing PM. The so-called ‘King of the North’ is now the runaway favourite to seize the keys to No 10, having already been anointed by would-be rival Wes Streeting and backed by many Labour MPs.
But Mr Burnham has also been branded a threat to Brexit due to his previous calls to rejoin the bloc, and the EU itself has delayed a planned summit so it can speak to him instead of Sir Keir. The former Greater Manchester Mayor may now face a challenge from Darren Jones, as Starmerite MPs seek to force a public race for the leadership.
Adding to chaos in Westminster, Ed Miliband is reportedly being considered to replace Rachel Reeves as Chancellor in any new-look top team, in a move that would hand the net zero champion control of the nation’s purse strings. The former Labour leader was branded a “lunatic” by former M&S boss and British businessman Lord Stuart Rose just yesterday.
Starmer holds talks with Burnham
Sir Keir Starmer held face-to-face talks with his likely successor, Andy Burnham, as he pledged a “smooth transition” of power following his resignation.
It is understood the Prime Minister met the frontrunner to replace him in No 10 for the first time since the former Greater Manchester Mayor’s by-election victory for an hour-long “off-site” discussion, as first reported by The Times.
POLL: Who should become Chancellor if Andy Burnham is Prime Minister?
Andy Burnham is reportedly bringing together his top team ahead of marching on No10. But who could bag what, under a potential Burnham government?
Reports are circulating in Westminster that the ‘King in the North’, who took the train south yesterday after his Makerfield by-election win, could impose a new Chancellor – or be forced to keep Rachel Reeves. Now the Daily Express looks at just who could take this key posting, and readers decide who they think would be the best of the bunch.
Answer our poll here to have your say on who should be the next chancellor.
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The 6 huge law and tax changes Andy Burnham is set to introduce as Prime Minister
Andy Burnham is on course to be the UK’s next Prime Minister, following Keir Starmer’s resignation. Standing outside 10 Downing Street on Monday, Sir Keir said: “I leave the biggest job in the country”. And Mr Burnham, the former Greater Manchester Mayor, is almost certain to fill the vacancy.
But what will he do once he takes over? Mr Burnham has spoken out on a number of issues in recent years. It means we have a good idea what to expect from a Burnham-led government.
POLL: Which Labour politician is the biggest threat to Brexit?
What a tumultuous week in the UK. We’ve lost a Prime Minister, Manchester has lost its Mayor, and said Mayor is surrounded by such a media frenzy that even his train journey was live-streamed on TV as he arrived in London to be sworn in as an MP.
The frenzy is not without reason. Andy Burnham, now the MP for Makerfield after a long path to rejoin Westminster, has eyes on Labour’s lead role. With a Cabinet shake-up expected, and suggestions that former MPs who resigned under Keir Starmer will return, The Express has examined which politicians could pose the biggest threat to Brexit.
Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting, Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner and Keir Starmer all have their own views on leaving the EU, and the Express has laid these out below.
Keir Starmer to give Andy Burnham access to civil service ‘to help transition of power’
Andy Burnham will start receiving government briefings from the civil service “as soon as possible”, Downing Street has said.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has agreed with Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo that Civil Service access talks can take place with prospective candidates to succeed him.
Sir Keir told his Cabinet that he would “seek to resolve difficult issues in the coming weeks to support his successor” and make the transition of leadership “as easy as possible.
Nigel Farage issues statement over inquiry into £5 million gift
Nigel Farage has acknowledged he could be facing a parliamentary sanction over an undeclared £5 million gift from a Thailand-based crypto businessman. The Reform UK leader has repeatedly denied wrongdoing over the gift from party donor Christopher Harborne, insisting it was a “wholly private matter”.
He reiterated that the money was unrelated to political activities in a series of interviews on Tuesday morning, his first broadcast round since news of the gift was revealed. But he appeared to concede that he could be facing a parliamentary sanction, adding: “The standards commissioner may take a different view.”
Lame duck Starmer pushes ahead with defence plan before Andy Burnham takes over
Outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will press ahead with his defence investment plan despite having announced he intends to leave his Number 10. Sir Keir’s refusal to give the military the increased funding they reportedly needed led to the resignations of two ministers, including the defence secretary John Healey earlier this month.
But now Downing Street has confirmed the Prime Minister will press ahead with plans to unveil the plan at the Nato summit on July 7. This means that the plan would be published before any potential successor to Sir Keir could be in place, even if Andy Burnham ran unopposed.
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Give me the keys to No10 and I’ll end small boats crisis in 14 days – it’s simple
Nigel Farage insists he can stop small boat migrant crossings within a fortnight if he becomes Prime Minister. The Reform UK leader is confident of delivering on the promise if he enters No 10.
The two-week pledge was one of the standout announcements of his keynote speech at the Reform UK conference last year. He has since indicated that he would stop the boats within two weeks of passing laws that he says would allow him to deport migrants quickly. But speaking exclusively to the Express, Mr Farage claimed it’s “dead simple” to cut crossings to zero.
Keir Starmer’s political obituary – PM who enraged pensioners, business owners and farmers
Sir Keir Starmer delivered one of the Labour Party’s greatest electoral triumphs, but then led it to a shattering defeat, which left MPs fearing for the future of the country. This barrister who rose to become Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) jumped into frontline politics in 2015 and was clutched by moderate Labour MPs as their best hope for saving the party from the wreckage of the Jeremy Corbyn era.
He was the perfect figure to rebrand a party whose credibility with the electorate had been shredded by antisemitism accusations. Sir Keir, an analytical lawyer not prone to explosions of passion, did not look like an extremist. He profited from the wild unpopularity of the Conservatives, whose own reputation for stability and competence had been decimated by the economic turmoil which doomed Liz Truss and by the naked divisions in a party addicted to regicide. Not only did he get Labour back into Government, but he also did so with a landslide. The party secured less than 34% of votes cast, but that was enough to win 411 of Westminster’s 650 seats.
Rayner: ‘I dug my heels in over social housing cash’
Angela Rayner said she had “dug my heels in” over funding for social housing while she was in Government and “the Treasury won’t thank me, but I’d do it all over again”.
The former deputy prime minister said a “huge number” of children were living in temporary accommodation and families in poverty were struggling to keep a roof over their heads.
Talking up her record as housing secretary before her resignation, she said “it’s why I dug my heels in, demanded £39 billion for social and affordable housing and the Treasury won’t thank me, and I was the last one to settle on my budget, but I’d do it all over again”.
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‘Sneaky Remoaners should learn lesson of Brexit as real reason for 2016 victory laid bare’
Ten years ago tomorrow, the great British public stuck it to the metropolitan elite and voted to leave the European Union. Brexit was a vote for British sovereignty, control over our destiny and freedom to make our own choices as a country. Some say if the vote was held again today there would be a different result. I don’t think so. Knowing we’d have to pay billions more per year to be a member, give up the pound, take freedom of movement and increase costly bureaucracy, the vote would probably be even bigger for Brexit. But do we need to maximise our Brexit freedoms, absolutely.
Now more than ever we need to take advantage of those opportunities, complete those trade deals with fast-growing nations, seize the chances to grow our economy and get our country back on its feet. Now is not the time to falter and wobble over Brexit. It is the time to capitalise on it, something I’m afraid too many of the political class and civil service class shied away from, hoping one day we would return cap in hand to the EU, like Starmer is trying to do and who knows what flip-flop Burnham will do if he becomes Prime Minister.
The 2 MPs who could try and stop Andy Burnham becoming PM
Wannabe Prime Minister Andy Burnham could be foiled from taking over because of a last-ditch effort from his own side.
Following a triumphant return to Westminster yesterday after the former Mayor of Manchester swept to the Makerfield by-election win, Mr Burnham confirmed he would go for Sir Keir Starmer’s job.
Now reports are buzzing around that a ‘coronation’ whereby nobody stands between Mr Burnham and the keys to No10 could be frustrated by mutinous backbenchers and a Starmer loyalist.
But plotters would need to make themselves known by July, as nominations for the top job open on the 9th, with each aspirant needing the backing of 81 Labour MPs to stand.
Andy’s Burnham’s secret team of 7 who’ve been plotting his takeover of Britain
Andy Burnham is pulling together his top team as he hashes out what a Downing Street operation would look like with him at the helm. Making a triumphant return to Westminster yesterday, he paused for a selfie with adoring MPs just hours after their old boss threw in the towel.
But whilst MPs jostle for ministerial jags, who’s in the top team keeping his plans under lock and key as Mr Burnham sizes up the curtains No10?
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It was the Express wot won it – ten years on, this is how the Brexit campaign began
The seeds of Brexit were sown when Daily Express journalist Patrick O’Flynn arrived back in his office at the end of the 2010 political recess. The fallout from the global financial crisis two years earlier was still reverberating around European capitals, and the EU was in a mess. As the paper’s chief political commentator, Patrick had spent his summer break in part brooding over Britain’s struggling relationship with Europe.
From complicated, burdensome red tape to unnecessary and costly laws, Brussels had hijacked hundreds of thousands of decisions from Parliament. There was a sickening realisation in some quarters that an army of unelected Eurocrats in thrall to France and Germany now decided everything from farming to fishing to food safety.
Miliband branded ‘a lunatic’ by former retail chief
Mr Miliband was savaged as a “lunatic” by former retail titan Lord Rose in an explosive intervention yesterday.
The ex-M&S chief told Times Radio he was “not hopeful” about Britain’s future under a Labour government.
He went on to brand the net zero boss a “lunatic” who was desperate to “go and get to net zero faster than anybody else.”
Nation ‘deserve a vote’ if Burnham becomes PM without mandate
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said if Andy Burnham becomes prime minister next month “he’ll do so with no mandate whatsoever” and the public “deserve a vote”.
Mr Farage said Sir Keir Starmer “left yesterday with no dignity at all”, adding “I found he became petulant, aggressive, rude, insulting”.
Discussing Mr Burnham, the Reform UK leader told GB News: “Politicians have to take positions.
“We, at the moment, have almost no idea where this man stands on anything, he’s flipped and flopped in the last month more than Keir Starmer has in the last two years.”
Mr Farage added: “I’m hoping that Al Carns, or someone like that stands against him, so that over the course of a summer we can actually see what he stands for. At the moment, we haven’t got a clue.
“If he does become prime minister on July 17th, he’ll do so with no mandate whatsoever.
“I think the public are sick to death of the game of musical chairs that’s going on in Downing Street and deserve a vote.”
The Reform UK leader added that his party “can be ready very, very quickly” for a general election.
Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)
The 2 MPs who could try and stop Andy Burnham becoming PM – not Rayner or Miliband
Wannabe Prime Minister Andy Burnham could be foiled from taking over because of a last-ditch effort from his own side.
Following a triumphant return to Westminster yesterday after the former Mayor of Manchester swept to the Makerfield by-election win, Mr Burnham confirmed he would go for Sir Keir Starmer’s job.
Now reports are buzzing around that a ‘coronation’ whereby nobody stands between Mr Burnham and the keys to No10 could be frustrated by mutinous backbenchers and a Starmer loyalist.
Andy Burnham (Image: Getty)
Minister backs Burnham for PM
Nick Thomas Symonds says he will be supporting Andy Burnham to be Labour leader and future PM.
He said the former Greater Manchester Mayor’s is someone “who is best placed to defeat Reform”.
Speaking to LBC, the minister added: “I think going forward what the PM’s doing is setting out the possibility of a swift and ordinary transition. He put the country first by setting out the timetable he did yesterday.”
Andy Burnham’s silence is deafening – and he’s about to hand Farage a huge victory
Now odds-on to become Britain’s next Prime Minister in what could be a coronation as other candidates step aside, Andy Burnham spent years arguing for the UK to head back into the EU. Yet the seat that carried him back to Westminster, Makerfield, voted by 65% to leave it.
It could be that tension which sits at the heart of the questions now being asked about what a Burnham premiership would mean for Britain’s historic vote to leave.
Boris Johnson’s role in breaking free from the EU summed up in three words
Lord Frost has a three word answer when asked if the 2016 referendum could have been won and Brexit then delivered without Boris Johnson’s efforts as a campaigner and then prime minister: “No and no.” The Chief Brexit negotiator argues the former Mayor of London was “crucial” in winning over voters who might not have backed Leave with a “different vision for the country and how it could prosper in the world”. Mr Johnson ensured the campaign was about more than opposition to immigration.
Lord Frost quit Mr Johnson’s Government in 2021 but he retains respect and admiration for how his comrade in the Brexit wars was able to reach out across “normal party lines” and transform the country. He said: “Whatever Boris’s other failings, as became apparent later, he’s still a compelling political figure, and I don’t think anybody else could have done it, to be honest”.
Boris Johnson (Image: Getty)
Burnham could hand Miliband keys to No11
Now bombshell reports suggest the wannabe Prime Minister could be about to hand Ed Miliband the keys to No 11.
In a stunning shake-up that would axe Rachel Reeves, Mr Burnham is said to be ready to install the architect of Britain’s net zero crusade as Chancellor instead.
Mr Miliband has repeatedly come under fire from critics for overseeing a ban on new North Sea drilling – a move his rivals say has left Britain dangerously dependent on foreign oil.
Nigel Farage – I’d pull UK out of ECHR immediately as PM to stop critical threat
Nigel Farage has said the first thing he would do as prime minister if he won a general election would be to remove the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights. The Reform UK leader said it’s “it’s just so obvious” the country needs to leave the ECHR, allowing ministers to take action which would cut illegal migration.
Speaking exclusively to the Express, Mr Farage said it would also “re-establish trust” with voters. Asked what would be the first thing he would do if becomes Prime Minister, he said: “Leaving the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into British law under the Human Rights Act 1998. That’s the first thing I want to tell you.”
(Image: Getty)
Burnham faces Brexit betrayal accusations
But Mr Burnham, a staunch Remainer who has demanded Britain rejoin the EU, has sparked fury over his stance on Brexit.
The UK voted overwhelmingly to leave the bloc in a historic referendum ten years ago, in what remains the largest democratic exercise in British history.
Yet when grilled on the issue by the Daily Express, a flustered Mr Burnham simply jogged off, point-blank refusing to answer.
Project Fear failed to scare voters – but 10 years on, we’ve yet to ‘take back control’
The occasion was momentous, the verdict historic. Exactly ten years ago today the British people voted by a decisive margin for the return of our independence after more than four decades of rule by the unaccountable, unelected bureaucracy in Brussels. What the outcome of the EU Referendum in June 2016 clearly showed was a collective yearning for Britain to be a sovereign country once more, not a regional province of a sclerotic empire. It was a feeling captured in the Leave campaigners’ slogan, “Take Back Control”, which exuded an uplifting sense of confidence about Britain’s capacity for self-governance. The same patriotism shone through this paper, long renowned as a compelling voice in support of great national causes.
What’s happened?
Sir Keir Starmer quit yesterday, blasting open the door for Andy Burnham to seize the keys to No 10.
Mr Burnham, who stormed to victory in the Makerfield by-election last Thursday, swept back into Parliament to a rapturous welcome from cheering Labour MPs after being sworn in.
The triumphant mayor wasted no time announcing he would throw his hat in the ring for the Labour leadership, a move he has been threatening for months.
