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.

He would be very stupid to call an Autumn election.

Where has anyone called anyone abrasive, please?

Maybe ...though what has happened to Starmer shows that getting "5 years on his own manifesto" is not guaranteed even if you do win a General Election!

She made some bad decisions but Starmer was the lead on all of it. I agree with the posts saying she was not a good chancellor but he was even more responsible for all those terrible decisions.

Completely agree. He was a terrible PM. Thank goodness he didn't even make two years in the job.

In this thread, Rayner and Nandy were called “loud, abrasive, and easy to dislike”.

Thanks, I have been reading along but missed that. I have never heard Nandy so described before. I know people have given reasons about Rayner, ie what she called the Tories, but she apologised for that re: the abuse she received.

Why? The Tories aren't recovered, Reform is failing, the Greens have exposed how silly they are, boat arrivals are 40% down, he has a popularity bounce and he can't do much outside the manifesto which wasn't his unless he does.

He could but then so did May and after campaigning she lost her majority. He’s better off sticking with the majority who want to back his plans anyway.

Ik whatever happens now I’m so pleased he’s out.

So am I. I've always said Burnham can't be worse than Starmer and I still believe that.

Can you show me the data for this so called 'popularity bounce'? I think he would lose a huge number of seats at a GE.

Equally, it’s seen as a mistake that Brown didn’t call one, and obviously Johnson benefitted massively from having one (although I appreciate Johnson didn’t really have as much to lose since he didn’t inherit a majority).

Basically I don’t think previous early elections called by a new PM are that useful as a guide, as the situations are so unique.

Not sure how you can write Angela Rayner with a straight face.

Can't beleive Rayner is back ... poor decision IMO.

True about Brown. It could go either way.

However I hope he believes what he said in the speech re people are fed up with upheaval and he just sticks to his plan for the years left.

Burnham has rewarded everyone - some of these people were obviously miffed when they didn't get another ministerial appointment and the previous administration found out what they could then do with their time. That is what a lot of these appointments are. All of the people with a big job at least told the previous PM he had to go.

Yes I think they all did do that.

Im glad it’s completed. To see them all jostling publicly for a role was an unedifying spectacle.

Why don't they like her?

Is Google not your strength? Labour support had been rising since it was obvious Burnham was taking over.

The trouble is that I don't think his plans can be achieved with the 24 manifesto and if he departs too far from that he really needs to call an election.

Shame she didn’t use those skills when ‘researching’ the tax she’d have to pay when she bought her Hive house.

or the optics of being photographed on one of the busiest beaches with a vape and a glass of wine in hand (glass of wine more acceptable , although drinking wine on open water?)

Google is indeed my strength and the last poll most certainly suggested nothing like a 'popularity bounce' for Burnham himself. Once the delight at getting rid of Starmer has died down over the next few days, Labour will be back to where they were previously.

BBC opinion polls for UK:

Polls conducted in the two weeks up to last Friday put Labour on an average of 21%, roughly level with the Conservatives.

Reform UK is averaging 25%, down from a peak of 32% last October.
The party still leads in most opinion polls, although a Survation poll published last week put Labour level with it, while an Opinium poll gave Reform a lead of just one percentage point.

The Greens are averaging about 13%, down from 17% in April, while the Liberal Democrats are on about 12%.