Like Starmer’s appointment in 2024, Burnham’s potential win is a win for the financial overlords of Britain’s political establishment.

The focus is firmly on Burnham who is on the path to oust Starmer as PM by winning a parliamentary seat in Makerfield.

Burnham’s establishment handlers

However, reports suggest that Burnham’s advisers are the same handlers long embedded within Britain’s tone-deaf establishment.

Jim O’Neill,  a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a former Tory minister, is one of the advisors connected to Burnham.

O’Neil served under David Cameron’s government as Treasury minister. Burnham has also chosen Richard Hughes, the former OBR chair — who was forced to resign following the leaked budget last year — as well as ex-Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane.

NEW: Andy Burnham is taking advice from a trio of top economists: Andy Haldane, former chief economist at Bank of England, Richard Hughes, former director of OBR, and Jim O’Neill, former chair of Goldman Sachs.

His team will hope this helps reassure the financial markets which…

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) June 18, 2026

According to the FT, Hughes, a senior economic adviser at London-based fund manager Taula Capital, is “largely well regarded by economists.”

City AM has described them as a “crop of heavyweight economic advisers.” This is jargon for people for whom the capitalist system is functioning extremely well. They’ll do everything in their power to preserve that status-quo.

According to Bloomberg:

Burnham is seeking to bolster his economic advisory line-up ahead of a widely expected leadership bid this summer. The Greater Manchester mayor is seen as an unknown quantity by investors, some of whom are worried he could back a looser fiscal policy.

Zoe Billingham is the head of the IPPR North think tank. In addition, Mark McVitie, the former Labour Growth Group chief, will also be the new groupies, Bloomberg added.

Bankers prioritised

Labour has been great at prioritising the interests of bankers. In fact, some are already grieving the prospect of Starmer’s departure as PM.

FT even acknowledged that bank executives admitted that Starmer’s government gave them an “astonishing escape” by not raising taxes. This was something any other chancellor other than Rachel Reeves would have done.

Banks brace for tax raid if Starmer is ousted https://t.co/7DluamrQg3

The FT‘s fears have been neutralised, with it now saying that Burnham has been seeking to “distance himself” from his comments in September. Previously, in those comments, Burnham said the UK needed to get “beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets.”

So much for a change, eh?

Featured image via the Canary

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