POLL: Should Andy Burnham make Ed Miliband chancellor?

Speculation is high that Andy Burnham could make Ed Miliband chancellor if he enters 10 Downing Street. The frontrunner to replace Sir Keir Starmer is said to be taking place about who will sit in his Cabinet.

The Energy Secretary, who leads Labour’s net zero push, has been tipped as a potential candidate to replace Rachel Reeves in the Treasury. Other names touted include former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.

But Sir Keir’s right-hand man appeared to warn Mr Burnham against making Ed Miliband this morning as he set out “tests” for any potential occupant of Number 11.

Asked for his view of Mr Miliband as chancellor, the chief secretary to the Prime Minister said: “I’m not going to get into personalities.”

But setting out his “tests” for who take on the role, he added: “I think the next chancellor needs to be able to have a clear view about the political economy and understand how the Treasury works.

“I think they need to have an important relationship with the prime minister, because, quite frankly, in many circumstances the chancellor in the Treasury is more powerful than the prime minister in Downing Street.

“So, you have to have someone that’s going to enable the delivery of the prime minister’s priorities and not try to control the prime minister. And that relationship is really critical.

“You also need a chancellor that can reassure the markets, reassure the trade unions and reassure the parliamentary Labour Party, and by extension the public.”

Asked whether Mr Miliband “falls short” of his tests, Mr Jones said; “I will let you mark those tests, but those are the tests I think need to be met.”

Mr Burnham will begin to set out his policy platform by pledging economic growth and committing himself to Labour’s existing fiscal rules in a speech next week.

He would enter No 10 within weeks if no one else runs in the Labour leadership race.