Jonathan Reynolds could be back in the business secretary role when Andy Burnham unveils his cabinet this week. Reynolds, who moved from the post last September to become chief whip, joked in a Times Radio interview over the weekend that he had “no clue” what his job would be by Monday.
Burnham said in his first speech as Labour leader on Friday: “I will be a pro-business leader of the Labour Party as I was a pro-business mayor of Greater Manchester”. That pledge now sits behind the expected return of Reynolds, who won backing from several Labour figures and business leaders during his first spell for his links with employers and trade unions.
Burnham and Jonathan Reynolds
Reynolds led negotiations on trade agreements and handled emergency legislation to secure the future of British Steel’s blast furnaces during his previous term as business secretary. Those jobs left him with a profile inside the business department that makes a return straightforward if Burnham wants continuity at the top of the brief.
The reported move also fits Burnham’s wider plan for the department. He is considering expanding the Department for Business and Trade by taking science responsibilities from DSIT, while other functions could move to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
DSIT and Whitehall
One Labour figure said the enlarged department could later be renamed a Ministry of Industry. Burnham has also discussed giving it greater responsibility for business-facing energy policy, but people close to the talks said that option now appeared less likely.
Matt Clifford warned on X that another Whitehall reorganisation risked distracting officials and would “waste time and energy” if science and technology teams were moved again. The concern is practical rather than abstract: a reshuffle would change which teams sit with the business brief and which stay outside it.
Rain Newton-Smith said: “We want Andy Burnham and his team to succeed. ‘Manchesterism’ provides a coherent theory of growth… The challenge is execution.” For employers and departments now watching the cabinet announcement, the immediate question is whether Burnham stops at restoring Reynolds or uses the same reshuffle to redraw Whitehall around a bigger business department.
