Andy Burnham's new cabinet - who's in, who's out.

[Twiglets1]

John Healey, who quit as Keir Starmer's defence secretary last month, has been pictured walking up Downing Street - is he about to be reinstated as Defence Secretary, I wonder.

Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood also photographed walking up Downing Street together - but we still don't which positions they will be given in Cabinet.

I agree about the optics of Rayner returning to Housing. Not against her returning generally but think it would be better to at least move her to a different area, like Social Care.

Glad Streeting got a Cabinet role. Hope he will be good in Defence - at least the new Chancellor should be sympathetic to any plans to spending more on Defence!

Women like Reeves, Raynor and Haigh make it harder for women with talent and integrity.

I think the toys went out the pram with Reeves. It was a certain type of arrogance not to accept another senior role in government and it appears her career in national politics may be over. I doubt she'll not want to sit long on the backbenchers and will be looking at lucrative consulting and boardroom roles soon.....

Are we back to Oxbridge elites? Which of the cabinet don't have Oxbridge degrees (Burnham English at Cambridge.....though he probably doesn't mention this much with the man of the people Manc persona)

Why? What exactly has she done to pensioners?

Presumably a reference to Winter Fuel Allowance.

Rayner and Haigh? I can't think of any of them apart from Burnham who has. Anyway, What's wrong with people clever enough to get into Oxbridge ( especially from State schools) being in government?

Only Ange as far as I’m aware.

It is very rare for anyone without a degree from Oxbridge to reach the top in mainstream politics. From that point of view she has done incredibly well.

tory voter, but feeling a bit hopeful with burnham.

however…..scrapping digital id and using that money to reduce energy bills by a measly £45 a year, was there seriously not anything better that they could have done with that money?

given the complex decisions they need to make, we want MPs with a high level of education (not necessarily oxbridge) .

woukd have been nice if the business secretary actually had experience of, you know, actually working or owning a business though……

It was nothing to do with her being a woman, it was to do with her being a hopeless chancellor with a delivery that made you want to cut your own throat, much like the criticism her male boss got.

She was called Rachel from Accounts because Colin from Accounts was a very popular show streaming at the time and she had bigged up her CV to make her finance jobs seem much more important than they were. Her previous roles were not belittled, what was belittled was that they did not match her CV.

As a woman I will be forever annoyed with her for sitting on the front benches crying. The first female Chancellor was also the first politician to cry on the front benches and strengthen the feelings of people who hold the view that women aren't strong enough for the top jobs. No I'm not annoyed with her for being upset, crying, or a woman. I'm annoyed that a professional woman put herself into a public setting with the cameras right on her in that emotional state. No woman in business would go into a board meeting like that.

I thought Dan Jarvis, with his military and political career, was right for Defence. He seemed to be well-received and managed to get more money from the Treasury. At the moment you have to be part of the plan for Burnham or accept a similar or demoted role, I suppose.

Lucy Powell, Pat McFadden, and Louise Haigh aren’t Oxbridge either.

It was blindingly obvious that the early WFA would haunt the Starmer government. Bafflingly poor judgement and so disappointing and avoidable.

Lucy Powell did actually attend Oxford for a year, though dropped out because the environment didn't suit her. She moved to Kings College, London - another extremely competitive uni.

Pat McFadden is Scottish and studied at Edinburgh Uni, another extremely competitive uni.

Louise Haigh studied at the University of Nottingham, also very competitive.

So ok, what I should have said is It is very rare for anyone to reach the top in mainstream politics without attending a highly competitive uni first, often Oxbridge.

One of the very few exceptions being Angela Rayner.

Probably because cost of living is a stated priority IMO.

I’m waiting (pigs might fly) for some respite from heating oil prices where we have no ceiling, at the mercy of global prices and wars, and in Scotland so it’s flipping cold often! Dreading this winter ☹️.

No matter anyone’s thoughts on how Rayner performs in parliament I think her achievement is inspiring.

Yes her achievement is inspiring I agree. Not everyone has the traditional routes open to them of the excellent education afforded by private/grammar schools and a smooth transition into a top uni.

I can imagine there's a lot more bad feeling towards Reeves across the country today after those carefully contrived pictures of her and Starmer at his local pub. How disgusting to do that knowing the damage you'd caused to the hospitality industry and the hardship you'd inflicted on thousands of hard working people who have lost their jobs as a direct result of your actions. Absolutely shameful.

I also listened to a podcast interview with her a couple of years ago - can’t remember whose - but it was really interesting and covered the expectation she places on herself to do her preparation and research to an incredibly high level.

Agree.

I also wonder how many of the women being described as abrasive would be called abrasive if they were male.

Oh they definitely wouldn’t!!! They would be lauded for it! I love Rayners resilience and that by all accounts she can actually get things done.

Can we please stop this narrative about Reeves. She was an appalling chancellor who rightly deserved criticism. She was woefully out of her depth from day one and if Starmer had a backbone, he would have got rid of her well before he was forced to resign.

I want to know how transferring staff to number 10 north is going to transfer any power to number 10 north and how it's going to do anything other than result in a big one off cost and ongoing additional costs.

I also agree with the journalists saying that in making grandiose statements about a sea change in politics and eradication of homelessness, he has already set himself up to fail. There's a tad too much "make America great again" about it for me.

I do like the message he's sent to backbenchers by reappointing Mahmoud, not only on immigration. That "were taking the tough decisions whether you like it or not" will carry through to welfare reform too.

I predict he'll use the popularity bounce to call an autumn election to get 5 years on his own manifesto.

The best thing she could do is resolve the awful leasehold issues . So many are stuck in unsellable flats with spiralling costs . The bottom end will the market is truly stuck .