Andy Burnham is planning a major shake-up of the Foreign Office, which is expected to include a roadmap to return the UK to spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on international aid.
Senior Labour sources have told The Independent that “lieutenants of Andy Burnham” have been reaching out to expertise within the party over how to reform the Foreign Office.
One of the key moves will be to lay out a clear stance on the UK’s involvement in the war in Iran, how much military support to provide for the US and to establish a relationship with Volodymyr Zelensky over Ukraine’s war against Russia.
There is now a growing belief that energy secretary Ed Miliband is going to be handed the role of foreign secretary in Mr Burnham’s government, with explicit permission to prioritise tackling climate goals through the department.
He will also be seen as a more progressive foreign secretary in changing policy on the Middle East after Mr Burnham recently stated that policy towards the war in Gaza had “not been good enough”, suggesting there will be a tougher line taken on Israel. The move comes as:
There has been anger in the Labour Party at the way Sir Keir and chancellor Rachel Reeves downgraded international development money to just 0.2 per cent of GDP to help pay for the rising defence budget, without offering a roadmap to restore it to the original target.
The 0.7 per cent figure was an achievement of Gordon Brown’s government and maintained by David Cameron’s Tory-led government even after the financial crisis. But under Boris Johnson, then Rishi Sunak and finally Sir Keir it was reduced.
One senior figure noted: “Keir and Rachel broke a manifesto commitment on international aid but they were just not willing to engage with anybody on the issue.”
Senior Labour MPs including Commons overseas development committee chair Sarah Champion have been lobbying hard for a return to the development commitment.
Another MP said: “This was all part of Labour trying to out-reform Reform under Starmer; it is the sort of mean policy Farage advocated. Andy [Burnham] has made it clear we will be ‘distinctively Labour’ again and restoring development goals and the budget for it will be a big step towards that.”
Mr Miliband is understood to have been a frontrunner for the chancellor job but has been displaced by home secretary Shabana Mahmood.
One source said: “It looks like Ed is now a lock for the foreign secretary job. That is what is coming out from everyone at the moment.
“That is actually very good news because it means that Andy is serious about reforming the Foreign Office. Ed will put the D for Development back into the FCDO. He will be able to focus on climate goals and build an international alliance to tackle these issues.”
Even if Mr Miliband loses out to the other name being mentioned for foreign secretary - his brother David - the aspiration on international aid would remain. David Miliband is currently president of the International Rescue Committee, and has been pushing for a return to 0.7 per cent.
Ed Miliband’s special adviser, Polly Billington, has written a piece for the influential New Economics Forum which is feeding into the Burnham policy team, on the need to build international alliances on climate change to bypass Donald Trump’s US, China and Russia.
The MP for East Thanet wrote: “Key to the UK’s G20 strategy should be reviving and strengthening the Global Clean Power Alliance as a political coalition capable of driving urgent, coordinated action. The coalition should be built around a single guiding principle: protecting vulnerable populations while rapidly reducing all of our dependence on oil and gas.”
Meanwhile, Joe Powell, a campaigning Labour MP tipped for an anti-corruption ministerial role, is pushing for the UK to tackle money laundering in the City of London harder as a means of boosting international aid and preventing democracies being undermined by crypto currency donations.
Also writing for the New Economics Forum, he said: “Advanced and developing economies alike face a looming debt crisis and reduced fiscal space; the Sustainable Development Goals have an estimated funding shortfall of $4tn a year; and investment is needed in the energy transition. Yet it remains far too easy for autocrats and criminals to launder money; that should be part of the solution.”
He wants a focus on the “opaque” London property market as part of an international effort to tackle the problem noting that in his own constituency of Kensington and Bayswater, 40 per cent of the foreign-owned property is held in anonymous trusts.
As speculation grows about the make up of Mr Burnham’s cabinet, allies of Angela Rayner have played down suggestions she could be named as health secretary.
Lucy Powell is tipped to become deputy PM along with getting a government department, possibly culture.
Wes Streeting, culture secretary Lisa Nandy and education secretary Bridget Phillipson have also been mentioned as options for home secretary.
Mr Burnham is understood to be planning to abolish the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and bringing it back into the Department for Business where former business secretary Jonathan Reynolds is expected to get his old job back.
Loyalists of Keir Starmer including business secretary Peter Kyle, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Darren Jones, deputy PM David Lammy, tech secretary Liz Kendall, and housing secretary Steve Reed are all expected to return to the back benches.
Manwhile, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has warned Mr Burnham he is in for “a rude awakening”.
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg to be broadcast on Sunday, she said: “This is a man who doesn't want scrutiny, he doesn't want anyone asking him tough questions, he just wants to be a people pleaser.”
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
