UK PM Burnham sacks 12 cabinet members in purge, sparking factional backlash

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham at the bus station during a visit to Bath, England, Wednesday July 22, 2026.

Andy Burnham proved he was not afraid to use his political capital when he finally got the keys to 10 Downing Street.

Within hours of being formally announced as the UK's latest prime minister on Monday, he had completely torn up Keir Starmer's cabinet.

Key Dismissals

• Rachel Reeves was sacked as chancellor
• David Lammy lost his roles as deputy prime minister and justice secretary
• Darren Jones was fired as chief secretary to the prime minister
• Nick Thomas-Symonds was removed as cabinet office minister
• Hilary Benn was dismissed as Northern Ireland secretary
• Lord Hermer was sacked as attorney general
• Bridget Phillipson was stripped of her education brief, though she will still attend cabinet as minister for women and equalities

In total, a dozen cabinet members lost their jobs.

Despite the new PM's vow to end Labour "factionalism," observers noted this was a clear culling of Starmer loyalists.

New Appointments

In their place came close Burnham allies:

• Louise Haigh — now effectively the PM's deputy
• Anneliese Midgley — made chief whip
• Ed Miliband — promoted to foreign secretary, though he missed out on the job he really wanted, Chancellor of the Exchequer
• John Healey — appointed chancellor in a major shock; his resignation as defence secretary last month was described as the final nail in Starmer's coffin
• Wes Streeting — returned to cabinet as defence secretary, having resigned as health secretary in May in protest at Starmer's leadership

Survivors from Starmer's Team

Some members of Starmer's old team did retain their positions:

• Pat McFadden — remains work and pensions secretary
• Yvette Cooper — appointed as the new health secretary

Mixed Reactions

One Labour MP described the new cabinet as "a mixed bag," adding: "Some of the appointments are merit-based, but some of it pure factionalism."

A senior party figure told HuffPost UK: "It's a really bad reshuffle. He's made far too many enemies, and given far too many jobs to his mates. It's not just the people he's sacked — he'll have pissed off Ed, Yvette and Bridget."

A third source said: "Midgley as chief whip is a disaster, she doesn't know enough Labour MPs. They've now got loads of pissed off people who lost jobs or who didn't get jobs at all. What could possibly go wrong? It just felt like a mess of a reshuffle done by people who don't know the Parliamentary Labour Party, or any of the dynamics around politics that you have to balance."

Defending the Reshuffle

A Labour veteran defended Burnham's line-up, however, insisting there was a "clear logic" to his appointments.

"There's no way he could have made Ed chancellor because he's too divisive, so making him foreign secretary is a good consolation with the added bonus that it gets him out of the country," they said.

"Wes is a good appointment at the Ministry of Defence. He's bright and energetic, a description which does not apply to many of those who have been sacked. He just needs to stop riffing on social media. He's now in a department where they kill people, so he has to calm down and grow up, otherwise he will crash and burn."

Left-Wing Concerns

But not everyone is happy. One MP was dismayed at the lack of left-wingers in the ministerial ranks.

"This is a hard lesson in power politics and it's a lesson well received," he said. "This is what the cabinet would have looked like if Owen Smith had beaten Jeremy Corbyn in 2016. The left won't feature apart from the perhaps odd token position."

This week's Commons People podcast explores what kind of message Burnham is trying to send with his appointments — and why he might have added more fuel to Labour's simmering civil war.

Listen to Commons People on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.