Rachel Reeves has publicly lined up behind Andy Burnham as Britain’s likely next prime minister, while making a clear pitch for her economic record to survive any change at the top of government.
Speaking at the British Chambers of Commerce conference in London on Thursday, the chancellor said Burnham “will be the next prime minister” and said he was committed to the fiscal rules she set out in 2024.
Asked whether she wanted to remain chancellor under Burnham, Reeves declined to answer directly. “Those would be choices for him, I’m not going to pre-empt those,” she said.
Reeves also stressed her long ties to Burnham, saying she backed him for the Labour leadership in 2015 and said she had known Burnham for more than a decade and a half since becoming an MP in 2010. She pointed to government investment in regional transport, including Greater Manchester, as an area where the two had worked closely.
But she acknowledged there was “unfinished business on fiscal devolution,” an issue closely associated with Burnham’s time in local government.
Her strongest message was aimed at whoever controls the Treasury next. Reeves said: “I hope that whoever is chancellor, in the future, whenever that future may be, sticks to what I’m doing because it is beginning to bear fruit and we are seeing that investment return to the economy, that growth return to the economy, and crucially, that stability, so that businesses can plan and invest for the future.”
The political shift has also opened a race in Greater Manchester. The Liberal Democrats named Richard Kilpatrick as their candidate for mayor after Burnham became an MP last week. The mayoral by-election is scheduled for 30 July.
Kilpatrick said: “This is an incredibly important time for our fantastic city and I am absolutely thrilled to have been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Greater Manchester Mayoral election.”
