Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and ex-PM's other sacked loyalists in line for £200k payoffs as Andy Burnham creates 'Cabinet for the North'

By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 10:46, 21 July 2026 | Updated: 10:48, 21 July 2026 Keir Starmer and his loyalists who have been purged from Cabinet by Andy Burnham are in line for payoffs worth more than £200,000. After replacing Sir Keir as Prime Minister on Monday, Mr Burnham wielded the axe as he culled those closest to his predecessor. Rachel Reeves and 10 others followed Sir Keir out of the exit door as Mr Burnham made wholesale changes to the Labour Cabinet. The new PM drafted in a swathe of his Northern allies to replace the departing Starmerites in a Cabinet reshuffle that continued until late on Monday night. But there is some solace for those sacked Cabinet ministers who served under Sir Keir, as they are entitled to a severance payment of 25 per cent of their annual salary. Ms Reeves, David Lammy, Steve Reed, Peter Kyle, Liz Kendall, Darren Jones, Hilary Benn, Jo Stevens, Nick Thomas-Symonds, Lord Hermer and Baroness Chapman will all be in line for a payoff. Cabinet ministers who are in the House of Commons earn an annual salary of £67,505 in addition to the £98,599 annual salary they are paid for their role as an MP. It means those MPs who have been sacked from Cabinet are due a severance payment of £16,876. Your browser does not support iframes. Those who served in Cabinet while members of the House of Lords - such as Lord Hermer - earned an annual ministerial salary of £104,360. This means they will be entitled to a larger severance payment of £26,090. As PM, Sir Keir claimed an annual salary of £75,440 on top of his £98,599 annual salary for being an MP. It means he is entitled to a severance payment of £18,860 after being ousted from Downing Street by Mr Burnham. The total bill for taxpayers from Monday's Cabinet departures is set to be £222,924.  Mr Burnham is expected to make further changes to the Government with a reshuffle of junior ministerial ranks. As he sacked Starmer loyalists from Cabinet on Monday, Mr Burnham appointed his own closest allies to replace them at the top of Government. This included Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and First Secretary of State, effectively making her the second most powerful person in Cabinet. Lucy Powell, the Manchester Central MP and Labour deputy leader, was named as Education Secretary, while Knowsley MP Anneliese Midgley was given the role of Chief Whip. There was also a return to Cabinet for Angela Rayner, the Ashton-under-Lyne MP, who was given back her old job as Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary. It came little more than ten months after Ms Rayner quit Sir Keir's administration following her tearful admission that she failed to pay correct stamp duty on a new flat. When she resigned in September last year, Ms Rayner received a £16,876 severance payment from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.  Mr Burnham has appointed a record number of women to the Cabinet, with the number of females outnumbering males for the first time. Of the 23 full members of the Cabinet, including the PM, 12 are women and 11 are men. This is up from 10 women and 13 men in Sir Keir’s final Cabinet. The previous record was 11 women out of 22 full members, set by Sir Keir’s first Cabinet in July 2024. Of the 28 ministers eligible to attend Mr Burnham’s Cabinet – 23 full members and five others – 50 per cent (14) are women. This surpasses the previous record of 48 per cent of all attendees in Sir Keir’s first Cabinet.