Nowhere was the confidence of the prime minister, Andy Burnham, shown as clearly as in his appointment of chancellor. There were weeks of speculation that this appointment was a choice between the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, and the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, with their contrasting political economies.

It has been a hallmark of Burnham’s politics that he and his team do not get involved in briefing wars, so it was only when former defence secretary John Healey appeared in Downing Street together with Mahmood that it was clear that the prime minister had cut the Gordian knot, reassuring the markets with a cool, calm political operator with extensive Treasury experience as chancellor. Healey’s two years in defence meant that he would know both sides of the argument when it came to one of the biggest questions of the forthcoming budget: how to meet the bold new Nato defence spending targets without derailing the social ambitions of the Burnham government.

Just last week, it was revealed that the question of getting the right balance of the competing demands of defence, social care, council housing and devolution would be deferred to a spending review next year, and that this October’s budget would be a low-key, continuity affair. That’s a good thing, because the facts about the Ministry of Defence are stark – the stridency of its claims of underfunding........

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