Andy Burnham held his first Cabinet meeting as Prime Minister with a call for unity, despite having removed 11 allies of his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer in a sweeping reshuffle. Although Burnham secured an overwhelming 379 out of 403 Labour MP nominations, tensions within the party are already surfacing publicly, with sacked ministers signalling discontent rather than falling into line, raising questions about how stable his new government really is.

Former communities secretary Steve Reed, one of those dismissed in the cull dubbed the "Night of the Long Eyelashes", wrote a pointed letter suggesting he had shown more integrity than colleagues who abandoned Starmer. Meanwhile Darren Jones publicly challenged Burnham's pledge that all policies would be "fully funded", after Downing Street announced a £850million suspension of VAT on electricity bills, to be paid for by axing Starmer's digital ID cards scheme, valued at £1.8billion over three years. Jones noted the ID scheme itself had never had its costs formally accepted by the previous government, prompting accusations from Burnham allies that he was acting out of "sour grapes" after being sacked.