Britain's new Prime Minister Andy Burnham took office on Monday, reshuffling the cabinet to remove allies of predecessor Keir Starmer and appointing John Healey as finance minister, Ed Miliband as foreign minister and Wes Streeting as defence minister. Burnham pledged a 10-year plan to tackle cost-of-living pressures and signalled a leftward shift. Wes Streeting appointed to UK defence minister New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has appointed former health secretary Wes Streeting to be the UK's defence minister.
Wes Streeting enabled the US tech firm with links to Israel's genocide in Palestine, Palantir, to have access to NHS patient data and refused to disclose details of the contracts. Former foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, who defended the government decision to proscribe direct action group Palestine Action, will replace Streeting as health secretary. Britain's former health secretary Wes Streeting (L) arrives at Downing Street in London on 20 July 2026 (Henry Nicholls/AFP)
The United Kingdom's new prime minister, Labour's Andy Burnham, began shaping his government with a cabinet reshuffle and a series of socially oriented announcements, hours after taking office in place of Keir Starmer. The former mayor of Greater Manchester, who reached Downing Street without a general election after winning the Labour leadership, is Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade. New UK PM Burnham shakes up cabinet, purging Starmer loyalists, signaling tack to left; Miliband led party from 2010 to 2015, when he lost election; criticized Israel's Gaza policy The post Jewish former Labour leader Ed Miliband tapped as new British foreign secretary appeared first on The Times of Israel.
Ed Miliband appointed as UK foreign minister, Shabana Mahmood as interior minister New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has appointed Ed Miliband, former leader of the Labour Party and energy secretary under Keir Starmer, as foreign minister, according to Burnham’s office on Monday. He has also appointed former Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who was behind the ban on direct action group Palestine Action and harsher immigration reform policies, to be the UK's interior minister.
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