Chris Mason: Cull of Starmer allies as new chancellor faces crunching spending choices

35 minutes ago Chris Mason Political editor EPA A government ends and a new government begins, determined to make a splash with its early policy announcements. We can expect to see and hear plenty from the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham and his senior ministers in the coming days, making arguments, travelling the country and trying to make an impact. Burnham's new cabinet will meet for the first time at lunchtime. Its appointment became something of a nocturnal affair. At gone 22:00 BST on Monday night, there was still a minibus full of ministerial wannabes inside Downing Street waiting for their new positions to be confirmed. One of the later posts to be filled was that of defence secretary, a role taken by Wes Streeting, whose resignation as health secretary two months ago contributed to the draining of Sir Keir Starmer's authority as prime minister. The story of the reshuffle can best be summarised as neither of the two ministers most widely talked up as chancellor - Shabana Mahmood and Ed Miliband - getting that job, it instead going to John Healey. And there being a pretty significant cull of the ministers closest to and most loyal to the now former prime minister: think David Lammy, Darren Jones, Peter Kyle, Lord Hermer, Steve Reed and Rachel Reeves – albeit Reeves, I am told, was offered a cabinet post but turned it down. The appointment of Healey as chancellor is fascinating. Healey was a minister in the Treasury for five years between 2002 and 2007, firstly as economic secretary and then as financial secretary. Senior figures in government say Burnham and Healey share the same economic outlook and ambitions – built on a desire for reindustrialisation and devolution. It is also true that just a matter of weeks ago the new chancellor was being remarkably barbed about the government department he now leads. He talked of a "Treasury orthodoxy that's a dead hand on dynamic government" and that it saw "defence as a drain rather than a driver of growth." He added, with sting as a resigning defence secretary, that "our adversaries do not follow timetables set by the Treasury." As one figure in Whitehall, steeped in defence, texted to remind me, Healey wrote in his resignation letter that "I am certain that a headmark date for 3% of GDP on defence in 2030 is what Britain must set." Now it is his job, as chancellor, to make those numbers add up. And not just those numbers. The ideas floated by Burnham in recent days have the feel of a Christmas wish list: ambitious but without the costs worked out yet. There is the council house building programme in England he has talked about, raising the amount you can earn before you start paying income tax and shaking up social care in England for a start, all of which sound like they are likely to come with hefty bills. Burnham promised in his opening speech in Downing Street that he wanted to give people what he called "breathing space" to "help with the cost of living." He added that these measures would start being announced straight away, "including how we pay for them." It will be for the new prime minister and his new chancellor to work through those ideas, and their budgets.