According to reports, John Healey, the former Defense Secretary who resigned from the Starmer government last month, has been selected to replace Rachel Reeves as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
John Burnham has taken over as Prime Minister, and he has quickly moved to oust Starmer loyalists.
The Cambridge grad has been an MP since 1997 and previously worked with Chancellor Gordon Brown.
Healey is described as a “mainstream Labour” type with a focus on fiscal discipline. He has been an advocate for greater defense spending and “military Keynesianism.”
He is said to support Fintech and digital asset innovation.
As for Burnham, it is unclear which way he will land, but he has been described as believing in “business-friendly socialism” and greater public control of industry. It has been reported that Burnham is also supportive of digital assets/blockchain technology.
As the UK has been pursuing a policy to advance its standing in the global race for tokenization, including updated rules to support innovation, Burnham appears poised to continue this goal. At the same time, it is not immediately clear if policy objectives include tax reform to support entrepreneurship.
In his first speech as PM, Burnham focused on the cost of living and decentralizing power while acknowledging the populace is “fed up with politics.”
Burnham stated:
We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years. A new political model and a new economic model. In the 1980s, Britain took some wrong turns. Political power was centralized, economic power privatized, large parts of the country deindustrialized, and they still haven’t recovered. Many feel as though they’re still in decline, and they don’t have the ability to turn things around.”
He is preparing a ten-year plan for the country.