'I'm your last chance': Burnham warns Labour as he prepares new-look Cabinet
The new Labour leader will announce his cabinet next week when he is sworn in as Prime Minister
Andy Burnham is putting the finishing touches to his team which he is expected to reveal on Monday when he becomes Prime Minister, with Angela Rayner set for a cabinet comeback.
Listen to this article
The incoming PM, who will officially take the keys to Number 10 on Monday, promised to reverse "four decades of neoliberalism" which he admitted had followed Great Britain since the 1980s.
The Makerfield MP is expected to unveil a cabinet which represents "all parts" of Labour, in comparison to the more narrow one considered to have been adopted by Sir Keir Starmer's government.
He hinted that he would lead his government in that of a complete reversal to Thatcherism, and said during a speech on Friday that he would "do politics differently".
Read more: Andy Burnham faces Labour rebellion if Shabana Mahmood appointed chancellor
Ms Rayner is believed to be the frontrunner to replace James Murray as Health Secretary in a move that would mark her comeback to the government after she was forced to resign as Deputy Prime Minister after failing to pay £40,000 in stamp duty on a second home she owned.
Shabana Mahmood has also been tipped for a reshuffle, which could see her take Rachel Reeve's role as Chancellor.
The Home Secretary faces competition from Ed Miliband and Wes Streeting but is reportedly the frontrunner to move to the Treasury.
Onn ally of Mahmood, who worked as a shadow Treasury minister under Ed Balls, said this week that the home secretary was prepared to do what is right over what is popular.
She is said to have divided Labour MPs with a series of hardline immigration reforms making it harder for people to stay in Britain and claim refugee status while making it easier to deport people with no right to be in Britain.
The former Greater Manchester Mayor has repeatedly refused to shed light on how his cabinet may shape up.
Speaking from a special party conference in London where he was declared Labour Party leader, he said: "You do that when you do take over.
"You make those decisions, and it would be somewhat premature and would I think cause complete chaos if you start half a reshuffle before you’re in the position."
Asked if knew in his own mind who his chancellor would be, he said:" I am finalising those decisions, and I will come to conclusions very shortly, and then I will announce those on Monday.
"So that’s the normal way. People want everything earlier these days, and there’s lots of speculation, but that’s the orderly way to do it.
"I have done it I believe in the right way. I’m not in the job yet, but when I am, I will do it in the proper way."
During Friday's speech, Mr Burnham said the country is "crying out" for a new sort of politics, promising to forge a path that is "distinctly Labour".
Calling time on attempts to "out-Green the Greens or out-Reform Reform", he urged his party to forge its own path and to "stop wearing the Tories' clothes".
He added: "I am a leader for the North, the South, the East, the West, for Scotland, and for Wales, and for Northern Ireland."
He said the Labour movement, which backed him “heard the call from the people of Makerfield on behalf of forgotten places everywhere up and down this country for a return of the Labour they once knew".