Shabana Mahmood is expected to remain Home Secretary if Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister, with the Makerfield MP understood to be keeping the current holder of the portfolio in place as he prepares a potential leadership challenge to Sir Keir Starmer.
The Home Secretary, who took up the role in September 2025 after serving as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, has forged a closer working relationship with the former Greater Manchester Mayor in recent months. Ms Mahmood, a member of the socially conservative Blue Labour faction, is said to be committed to her current role and no private deal with Mr Burnham is believed to have been struck.
Her work at the Home Office has centred on restructuring policing in England and Wales, including proposals to merge forces, alongside pressing ahead with reforms to Britain’s immigration system. The appointment of Ms Mahmood as Home Secretary last year was widely seen as a signal of a harder line on immigration, a theme that aligns with Mr Burnham’s own stated positions.
Burnham’s path to Downing Street
Mr Burnham secured a parliamentary seat on June 18 with a decisive victory in the Makerfield by-election, taking 54.8 per cent of the vote and a majority of 9,231. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Josh Simons to create a vacancy for Mr Burnham, a move unprecedented since 1965 for a figure not already in Parliament. His campaign was framed around “change” and a “new path for Britain”, with pledges to re-industrialise the North and reject “trickle-down” economics.
The victory has intensified pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, who is facing calls to resign after significant losses in the May 2026 local elections and a series of ministerial resignations. Wes Streeting resigned as Health Secretary in May, citing a loss of confidence in the Prime Minister’s leadership. Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Al Carns stepped down in June over a dispute on defence spending, with Mr Healey stating the Defence Investment Plan “falls well short of what is required” and that the Treasury was “unwilling to commit the resources that the nation needs”. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told Sir Keir on Friday it was time to set out a timeline for his departure, while Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told GB News that Mr Burnham’s victory would earn him a “very loud voice at the top of national politics”.
It is understood that Mr Burnham is assembling a list of 200 Labour MPs to urge Sir Keir to step down. The Prime Minister has stated he will fight any leadership contest. Among those who have not openly called for his resignation are Ms Mahmood, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, all of whom are said to be reluctant to leave their current portfolios. Mr Burnham is believed to have previously considered appointing Energy Secretary Ed Miliband as Chancellor, but Labour sources have indicated he has cooled on that idea, partly because of concerns over Mr Miliband’s support for Labour’s manifesto commitment to no new North Sea oil and gas licences. “People are watching their bills go up and cannot understand why we are not using the resources we already have in the North Sea,” a senior Labour source told the i Paper. Other contenders for a senior role under Mr Burnham include former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, who told GB News on Friday she hoped Sir Keir “reflects on the results” of the by-election.
Immigration: Burnham’s agenda and Mahmood’s alignment
Mr Burnham’s stance on immigration has become a central theme of his leadership bid. Earlier this month he said he would “go further” to curb immigration if he were to become Prime Minister, calling for the Government to make “greater use” of detention centres and arguing that asylum seekers with “no basis for a claim” should be quickly deported. He has also criticised the use of houses of multiple occupation to home asylum seekers, a practice he raised repeatedly on the campaign trail.
In his Makerfield victory speech on Friday morning, Mr Burnham said: “I heard on so many doorsteps people’s concerns about the unfairness of the immigration system, that cut price approach to procurement. It’s not fair that they think that they can just operate like that and not hear the call of people here, the decent people here who always will do the right thing, the compassionate thing, but not when it’s unfair in terms of the way places like this are treated.”
Ms Mahmood’s membership of Blue Labour, a faction that promotes “blue-collar and culturally conservative values” with an emphasis on immigration and community, puts her ideologically close to Mr Burnham on this issue. Blue Labour’s founder, Maurice Glasman, has publicly stated that Sir Keir “cannot conceivably continue” as Prime Minister. Ms Mahmood’s previous role as Lord Chancellor and her current responsibility for immigration policy suggest continuity if Mr Burnham enters Downing Street. Some allies of the Prime Minister had earlier speculated that she could become Chancellor under a Burnham premiership, but the Makerfield MP appears to have gone cool on that idea.
The Home Secretary did not join the group of Cabinet members who met with the Prime Minister on Friday, and it is not believed she has been involved in any private discussions about succession. Her continued presence at the Home Office would see her maintain her work on restructuring policing and implementing the immigration reforms that Mr Burnham has promised to accelerate.
