Shabana Mahmood is set to keep Home Secretary role under an Andy Burnham premiership.
If the new Makerfield MP succeeds Sir Keir Starmer into Downing Street, the Home Secretary is expected to keep her current portfolio.
She would maintain her work on restructuring policing in England and Wales, including merging forces and pressing head with reforms to Britain’s broken immigration system.
Ms Mahmood, a member of Blue Labour, has forged a closer relationship with the former Greater Manchester Mayor.
She joins Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper as those within Sir Keir’s top team who are reluctant to leave their portfolios, according to The Telegraph.
In addition to public resignations from Wes Streeting, Al Carns and John Healey, a number of Cabinet members are understood to have urged the Prime Minister to resign and set up an “orderly transition” of power.
On Friday afternoon, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told Sir Keir it was time to set out a timeline for his departure.
And Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told GB News Mr Burnham’s victory would earn him a “very loud voice at the top of national politics”.
It is understood that the former Greater Manchester Mayor is assembling a list of 200 Labour MPs to urge Sir Keir to step down.
Ms Mahmood is not believed to have made any private deal with Mr Burnham and is said to be committed to her current role.
Some allies of the Prime Minister previously believed the Home Secretary could become Chancellor if the Makerfield MP enters Downing Street – an idea he appears to have gone cool on.
It had previously been suggested Mr Burnham would appoint Energy Secretary Ed Miliband as Chancellor, but Labour sources have said the Makerfield MP has cooled on the idea.
One senior Labour source told the i Paper Mr Burnham “knows it would be problematic”, with concerns over Mr Miliband’s support of Labour’s manifesto commitment to no new North Sea oil and gas licences.
“People are watching their bills go up and cannot understand why we are not using the resources we already have in the North Sea. People are really angry about it – especially in places like the Makerfield constituency,” a senior Labour source said.
Other contenders for the job include former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, who told GB News on Friday she hoped Sir Keir “reflects on the results” of the by-election and considered “what is in the best interests of the country and the party”.
Mr Burnham, earlier this month, said he would “go further” to curb immigration if he were to become Prime Minister.
He called for the Government to make “greater use” of detention centres, adding that asylum seekers with “no basis for a claim” should be quickly deported.
The Makerfield MP has also criticised the use of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) to home asylum seekers.
In his Friday morning victory speech, he said: “I heard on so many doorsteps people’s concerns about the unfairness of the immigration system, that cut price approach to procurement.”
“It’s not fair that they think that they can just operate like that and not hear the call of people here, the decent people here who always will do the right thing, the compassionate thing, but not when it’s unfair in terms of the way places like this are treated.”
