Burnham gives Miliband and Streeting key UK foreign and defence posts
Ed Miliband and Wes Streeting take charge of foreign policy and defence as Andy Burnham reshapes the UK government after replacing Keir Starmer.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
4 min read
Andy Burnham has put Ed Miliband and Wes Streeting in charge of the United Kingdom’s foreign and defence policy, giving two senior Labour figures the government’s most sensitive international roles. The appointments matter because both ministers arrive with political records that point to possible friction over war, energy policy, Israel and relations with the United States.
Al Jazeera reported that Burnham, who replaced Keir Starmer as the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade, moved quickly after taking office on Monday. He dismissed several figures aligned with Starmer, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, and brought back allies before holding his first cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Miliband’s record on war and diplomacy
Miliband, born in 1969 to Polish Jewish immigrants, has represented Doncaster North in Parliament since 2005, according to Al Jazeera. He served in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, led Labour from 2010 to 2015 and held the energy and climate brief under Starmer before becoming foreign secretary.
His most prominent foreign policy stand came in 2013, when he opposed British military action against Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria after a chemical weapons attack in Ghouta killed hundreds of civilians, Al Jazeera reported. His position helped defeat the Conservative government’s plan for strikes in a House of Commons vote, after which the United States also stepped back from planned action.
Al Jazeera reported that critics accused Miliband of weakening efforts to stop further war crimes by al-Assad’s forces. In a 2015 interview with Jeremy Paxman, Miliband defended that decision when asked whether he was “tough enough” to be prime minister, replying: “Hell, yes, I’m tough enough.”
More recently, Miliband reportedly urged Starmer to recognise a Palestinian state and opposed UK involvement when the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet said that position contributed to a split between Starmer and US President Donald Trump.
Miliband’s energy record may also affect his new role. Al Jazeera reported that he backed the UK’s 2050 net zero target, supported a near-zero-carbon electricity grid and halted new North Sea oil and gas exploration licences. Trump has criticised those policies, while US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has called the UK’s net zero target a “sinister goal” and “lunacy”, according to Al Jazeera.
Streeting moves from health to defence
Streeting, born in 1983, grew up in a council flat in Stepney, east London, and studied history at Cambridge, according to Al Jazeera. He later led the National Union of Students, worked in charities focused on educational disadvantage, served on Redbridge Council and entered Parliament in 2015 before becoming health secretary in 2024.
Al Jazeera reported that Streeting has little record on defence policy. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told LBC Radio before the appointment was confirmed that Streeting “knows pretty much the square root of nothing about defence” and said removing Dan Jarvis, a former army officer, after six weeks would be a backwards step.
Streeting’s positions on Israel and Gaza have drawn scrutiny. Al Jazeera reported that he has been a member of Labour Friends of Israel for more than 20 years, initially followed Labour’s line after the Gaza war began in October 2023, declined to back a ceasefire and described South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice as a distraction.
His public stance later shifted, according to Al Jazeera. By April 2025 he called Israel’s attacks on Gaza “intolerable”, and by September said they were pushing Israel toward pariah status. Texts to Peter Mandelson that later became public said Israel was committing war crimes “before our eyes” and supported sanctions, Al Jazeera reported.
Streeting has rejected the term “genocide”, and antiwar groups including Stop the War Coalition and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament have criticised his appointment, according to Al Jazeera. He has also defended using Palantir algorithms in the National Health Service despite criticism of the pro-Israel firm’s role.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.