Kemi Badenoch has urged Andy Burnham not to appoint Ed Miliband as Chancellor when he enters Downing Street next month, warning that handing the Energy Secretary control of the Treasury would be “a disaster for our country.”
The intervention by the Conservative leader comes at an unusual moment in British politics. Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor who won the Makerfield by-election on 18 June, is the overwhelming favourite to succeed Sir Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation as Labour leader and Prime Minister on 22 June. Under a timetable set by Labour’s National Executive Committee, the contest closes on 16 July, and Burnham is expected to be confirmed as leader and appointed Prime Minister around 17 July if, as widely anticipated, he runs unopposed. He has not yet named a Cabinet, but speculation has increasingly centred on Miliband moving to Number 11.
Speaking in central London and quoted by the Daily Mail, Badenoch described Miliband as “the villain” of Britain’s energy troubles and claimed he was “the single person who has done the most to deindustrialise our country.” Rewarding him with the Treasury, she argued, risked allowing him to “bankrupt the country.” She conceded that Labour faced “slim pickings” for the role, while mocking the party for having to bring its candidate for Prime Minister in from outside Westminster rather than choosing from its existing MPs.
The Tory leader, who was raised in Nigeria, also stood by an earlier and contested comparison of Miliband to a military dictator. Brushing aside what she called “language policing,” she argued that oil-rich Nigeria had long lacked reliable electricity because of state control of oil production and poor decisions under military rule, and claimed Miliband was pursuing a similar path of greater state intervention that, in her view, weakened Britain’s energy security. Having lived under both systems, she said, she was “uniquely placed” to draw the parallel. The remarks followed a week of criticism that she had been too personal in her attacks on senior Labour figures.
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Concern about a possible Miliband chancellorship has not been confined to the Conservatives. Sharon Graham, leader of the Unite union, has warned it would place a “noose around the neck” of British industry, while the hotelier Sir Rocco Forte said his appointment would send “a shudder through the business community,” citing what he described as anti-growth and high-tax instincts. Some Labour MPs and figures in the City have voiced similar unease.
Badenoch also turned her fire on Burnham himself, warning of a “summer of chaos” and dismissing his plans to expand devolution as “old hat” ideas borrowed from Boris Johnson’s government but stripped of their merits. Devolution, she said, was no “silver bullet,” accusing the incoming leader of “hiding” behind it to disguise a lack of answers and of being “afraid of taking difficult decisions.” In comments reported by GB News, she characterised his agenda as one of more public control, regulation and taxation.
Labour has not commented on the speculation surrounding Miliband, and Burnham — who has promised a “politics of unity” and to extend his brand of “Manchesterism” across the country — has yet to confirm any appointments. The shadow chancellor, Sir Mel Stride, used the occasion to renew Conservative criticism of Labour’s economic record.
