As Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership appears to enter its final days, some Labour MPs are quietly beginning to look beyond the Prime Minister’s now inevitable demise and ask another question: who will become the next Chancellor?

It is a question that needs consideration, because the consequences are enormous. In so many ways, prime ministers live and die by the track record of their chancellors. Is the economy growing? Do people feel better off? Have taxes gone up or down? Are public services working?

Starmer’s crisis-ridden 22 months in office have proved no different. While the buck always stops with the Prime Minister, so much of the damage to his popularity and authority has been done by the decisions taken by his Chancellor. Labour’s woefully inept return to power has been defined by the failures of Rachel Reeves, who must surely go down as one of the worst chancellors in recent history.

Reeves said her number one priority was economic growth, but she has delivered none of it. She is said to harbour hopes of continuing as Chancellor even if Starmer is forced to go. That is delusional, pipe dream stuff – a sign of just how out of touch with reality she appears to be. Whoever succeeds Starmer will need to make a clear break from the failures of the past two years, including jettisoning a wildly unpopular Chancellor who has her fingerprints on so many of the Starmer Government’s biggest mistakes.

The next prime minister will therefore need to make an early decision that is likely to define their premiership: who should become chancellor. This, of course, depends on who succeeds Starmer. If Greater Manchester........

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