About
John Healey became Chancellor of the Exchequer on 20 July 2026, appointed on Andy Burnham's first evening in No.10. He replaced Rachel Reeves, who left the Treasury when Keir Starmer stood down. Healey had served as Defence Secretary for most of the Starmer government.
Almost nobody predicted it. Betting markets favoured Yvette Cooper, while Shabana Mahmood and Ed Miliband were the names being briefed; Healey barely featured, having spent most of the Starmer years as Defence Secretary. He is not, however, a stranger to the building — he served as a Treasury minister under Blair and Brown, including as Financial Secretary, and has held economic and housing briefs on and off for two decades. He was Housing Minister under Brown, which gives him an unusually direct grasp of the property tax question now sitting in his in-tray.
What he lacks is a distinct economic doctrine. There is no Healeyism to decode, which may be the point: Burnham arrives with a strong policy identity of his own, and a Chancellor without a competing one leaves the pen in No.10. Read as a signal about power rather than policy, this is a Treasury expected to execute an agenda rather than set one.
What he has to decide first
The Autumn Budget, expected in late November 2026, is his first fiscal event and the one that matters. Analysts have identified a gap in the region of £22 billion between the new government's spending commitments and forecast revenue, and Burnham has already signalled he may ask people to pay "a little more" in tax.
Two questions sit on his desk immediately. Whether to extend the electricity VAT cut beyond its 31 March 2027 expiry — an easy win that has to be paid for. And whether the Proportional Property Tax the Prime Minister has long backed moves from campaign idea to consultation, against loud opposition from London.
In the news
- John Healey is Chancellor: the surprise pick
- Autumn Budget 2026: what to expect for your money
- The electricity VAT cut, explained
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