Ed Miliband should be chancellor, says Harriet Harman

Ed Miliband should become Andy Burnham’s chancellor, Harriet Harman has said.

Speaking on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, the veteran Labour peer said the "strongest candidates" were Mr Miliband and current Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.

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Asked to choose who it "should" be between those two, she said: "I'm caught between Ed and Yvette, but I think, marginally, Ed."

Mr Burnham, widely expected to replace Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister, is also thought to be planning to replace Rachel Reeves as chancellor.

Names rumoured to replace Ms Reeves, alongside Mr Miliband, include former health secretary Wes Streeting and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Ms Mahmood is thought to want to stay in here current job, however.

On how to pick a chancellor, Baroness Harman said a prime minister needs to pick "somebody who's on the same page" as them.

She said: "You cannot have economic policy division and strife between No 10 and No 11."

Baroness Harman also said Burnham will "want a chancellor who is going to be radical".

"It can't be business as usual," said Baroness Harman. "The Treasury likes to be the deficit reduction department - it needs to be the growth generating department."

But, the former Labour deputy leader added that as well as someone "radical", the next chancellor also needs to be "credible".

She said that Mr Miliband is "radical", but also "experienced", and "knows the Treasury inside and out". She pointed to the energy secretary's past role chairing the council of economic advisers for former chancellor Gordon Brown in the early 2000s.

To make himself a "credible" chancellor, he would need to do "something big to show that he understands the fiscal cliff edge we're on".

On Ms Cooper, Baroness Harman said although she "is not being talked about so much", she also has experience in the Treasury, and is also "radical".