There are few things on which this column would agree with George Osborne. Voting to remain in the European Union was one. Backing Labour’s Ed Miliband to be the next chancellor is another.

Mr Osborne, whose austerity programme redistributed pain downwards while protecting privilege at the top, had only a week ago on his podcast, Political Currency, dismissed Mr Miliband as too difficult a sell to business and the press. He now recognises what should have been obvious: if Andy Burnham is serious about governing differently, he needs a chancellor with the authority, knowledge and political relationship with the prime minister to bend the Treasury to the project.

A strong chancellor is a must for Mr Burnham, who arrives after a breakdown in the Starmer government as a midterm prime minister with civil servants wondering whether he is just another temporary leader. The danger is that if officials think that Mr Burnham........

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