Sir Keir Starmer had years in opposition to prepare for government. His likely successor, Andy Burnham, has weeks. Unlike the outgoing prime minister, Mr Burnham will bring past ministerial experience to the top job as well as lessons learned as the mayor of Greater Manchester. But as every veteran of No 10 attests, the pressures in that building – the intensity and unpredictability of events – are like nothing else.

To take office without clear priorities or a sense of how to drive an agenda through the machinery of government is a recipe for drift and loss of control, bouncing from one crisis to the next. That was Sir Keir’s fate. His failure to use the run-up to power more fruitfully accounts in large part for the truncation of his tenure.

Mr Burnham can learn from that mistake. In particular, he must avoid the temptation to dwell on issues that dominate the Westminster news cycle at the expense of international affairs. No........

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