Andy Burnham must have 'worked-through plan' to govern Britain when he enters No 10 says Rachel Reeves as she prepares to leave as Chancellor

By OLIVIA ALLHUSEN, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 15:02, 11 July 2026 | Updated: 15:06, 11 July 2026 Andy Burnham must have a 'worked-through plan' for governing Britain when he walks through the door of No 10 Downing Street, Rachel Reeves has said. The Chancellor was speaking in what could be the last major broadcast interview of her time in office, on the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg. Ms Reeves conceded she will no longer be Chancellor when Andy Burnham takes over as prime minister, which now appears all but certain. Mr Burnham, who emerged as the only candidate in Labour’s leadership contest to succeed Sir Keir Starmer, could become prime minister as soon as July 20. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, are among the names being floated among MPs as a possible successor to Ms Reeves. The Chancellor told the BBC: 'it is important that when Andy walks through that door he has a worked-through plan, because governing is hard in Britain, and lots of challenges and shocks will come his way'. Mr Burnham must be 'really clear about what they want to achieve', and 'needs to stay laser-focused on those things that have always motivated him, have always driven him', the Chancellor also said. Elsewhere in the interview, Ms Reeves was asked why Sir Keir Starmer's time as Prime Minister was coming to an end. Andy Burnham must have a 'worked-through plan' for governing Britain when he walks through the door of No 10 Downing Street , Rachel Reeves has said 'People are impatient for change – I'm impatient for change and I totally get that people want to see their lives changed faster,' she said. The Chancellor is expected to make one last major address to the City on Tuesday, the Mansion House speech. Her comments come after Morgan McSweeney said Labour did not do enough to prepare for power in the run-up to the general election. Earlier this month, in his first media interview since leaving Downing Street, Mr McSweeney said he was speaking publicly because he needed to ‘move on to a new chapter’ in his life after serving as Sir Keir’s chief of staff and a senior Labour strategist. Speaking to the BBC's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast, Mr McSweeney was asked why he believed Labour had faced so much turmoil in its short two years in office, culminating with his former boss Sir Keir's resignation as Prime Minister.  The former Labour strategist told the BBC: 'I think that we didn't prepare enough for what kind of world we were going to be in. 'We are now in a very different era than when Labour was last in government, and I think we didn't have enough conversations at the top of the party about what that meant, how to prepare for it, what that meant for the state, how the state needed to be reformed, because in lots of ways the state is really out of shape and is unable to deliver for people.'