Andy Burnham risks angering the 2024 intake of Labour MPs who helped put him into No 10 over his choices for ministerial appointments, backbenchers have warned.
It comes as MPs have raised concerns about handing Wes Streeting a prominent position amid speculation he is to be given the job of defence secretary.
The incoming prime minister is due to assemble his first Cabinet and ministerial team as he assumes control of the Government and the country after ousting Sir Keir Starmer from office.
Burnham has kept his decisions as to who will be appointed to ministerial roles a closely guarded secret, leading to frantic briefing and counter-briefing over who will be handed the top jobs.
But MPs have warned the former Greater Manchester mayor that he will be in danger of upsetting nearly half of the Parliamentary Labour Party if he does not promote members who entered the Commons at the last election.
The newest intake of 243 Labour MPs were instrumental in removing Starmer, after scores of them publicly broke ranks to call on him to stand down in the wake of May’s dismal election results.
“What Andy needs to be wary of is there will be about 200 MPs who will be very disappointed if they don’t get a job,” one MP told The i Paper. “It is more heightened than at previous reshuffles because they feel like every job is up for grabs, so he will have to be careful of that.”
Another source warned of the sheer scale of change Burnham is likely to oversee in his cabinet, with some predicting that between eight and 10 new faces could be brought in, bringing more churn into Whitehall.
“The biggest change will be in the Cabinet,” a Burnham ally adds. “A third of the Cabinet will go, perhaps up to eight of them. That is a massive change, probably the biggest change of senior personnel outside of a general election.”
Despite Burnham’s vow last week to end the “infighting” and the “factionalism” that has pockmarked that latter half of Starmer’s premiership, MPs supportive of the prime minister-in-waiting have demanded he “make an example of Starmer loyalists” when it comes to appointing his team.
“There will need to be some heads on pikes,” an MP said in a bid to reassure those that backed his bid for leadership. The MP named immigration minister Mike Tapp, who recently had a very public spat with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, as one of those who should be demoted.
The expectation that Mahmood is being lined up to become the next chancellor has already sparked a fresh bout of infighting within the party, while other MPs have raised concerns about the level of ministerial turnover in recent years.
“I’d rather she stuck at the Home Office to see her immigration reforms through,” a 2024 MP said. “There’s too much churn.”
MPs have also raised fears that Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis could be sacked, with Burnham said to be ready to hand Streeting the high-profile job.
“The idea that a serious Labour government would replace a knowledgeable and committed Major who has significant military experience and who isn’t plotting all hours of the day, as Defence Secretary, with someone who knows nothing about defence – and is seeking to fill a gap in his CV to run again – would be as farcical as it would be laughable,” one MP said.
“This would severely damage our credibility on the world stage, with our forces and with the defence industry, to not put our most serious foot forward at such an important time,” the MP added.
The comments were echoed by a defence industry source, who said: “Of course Dan needs to stay. We’ve had enough churn in the last few weeks, and he needs to get on with the job of delivering the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) and making it better. We can’t have any more uncertainty – our enemies are watching.”
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