Starmer should put Burnham in the cabinet to create a 'team of all the talents', says Harman

Sir Keir Starmer should appoint Andy Burnham to his cabinet, as he has "huge talents", Harriet Harman said.

Speaking on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harman said Sir Keir should bring back the Greater Manchester mayor into his top team - after the PM previously blocked Mr Burnham from becoming an MP earlier this year.

The prime minister is currently fighting to save his premiership, with more than 80 Labour MPs calling for him to go, while multiple junior ministers have resigned.

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In a special episode of the podcast, the Labour peer told Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby that the potential leadership rival would help the prime minister to form "a team of all the talents".

She said: "Andy Burnham, of course, can't be doing a coup at this point, or at least mounting a leadership challenge, because he's not an MP. And you can't challenge for the leadership of the Labour Party unless you're an MP.

"But actually, if we're looking at having a team of all the talents when the country's facing terrible odds and the Labour Party has got a cloud hanging over it, clearly Andy is part of the solution to that.

"And could it be that that Keir Starmer could say, 'actually, we need all the people in cabinet to be the very best people for the country. And that includes Andy Burnham. And I'm going to call him back in and he's going to be part of my government'."

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Members of the cabinet do not technically need to be MPs or peers, though convention dictates that this has almost always been the case in modern British political history.

There have been examples of politicians who are members of neither the Lords nor the Commons attending cabinet, such as Gordon Walker in 1964. Civil servants and special advisers also routinely attend cabinet meetings - though they do not take part in discussions.

Challenged on the idea of returning Mr Burnham to the cabinet, Baroness Harman responded: "Well, if he can construct a sense that the cabinet is there to support the prime minister to do the best for the country in very difficult circumstances, if he can really build that sense, then why on earth would he not have Andy Burnham as part of that?

"He has got huge talents, [Sir Keir has] brought back Gordon Brown to add some help and some heft."

She added that "nobody wants chaos", however at the moment "there's instability, but there's no endgame".

Baroness Harman continued: "I just think that it's one thing having a big, internecine, factional contest when you're in opposition, but it's quite different when you're in government because you've got a job to do of running the country."

She also warned that if Labour changes leader, it will lead to calls from opposition parties for a general election, causing "further instability".

The peer explained that if Sir Keir was replaced: "Then Nigel Farage would say, 'yes, this election last week - it showed that the public want change. But they don't want change from Keir Starmer to Andy Burnham or Keir Starmer to West Streeting. They want change from Keir Starmer to Nigel Farage. They want me. So we must have a general election. This new person - you had no chance to have a say in choosing them. This is just the elites changing the people sitting in the top chairs'.

"Therefore, he would be starting to call for a general election because you haven't had a say. So I think there would be further instability."

(c) Sky News 2026: Starmer should put Burnham in the cabinet to create a 'team of all the talents', says Harman