Burnham’s Chancellor decision has become a circus… Brits deserve to know what kind of Government we’ll be lumbered with

THERE they all are, frantically jostling for position like a gaggle of out-of-shape Sunday morning joggers on the starting line of a fun run. But when this undignified scramble comes to an end, which one of the motley group will have got ahead? Andy Burnham’s failure to name a Chancellor has turned a key appointment into a circus Credit: Getty If Ed Miliband wins control of the Treasury, brace yourselves for another debilitating bout of 1970s-style socialism, with strivers and savers being squeezed until the pips squeak Credit: Getty Will Red Ed go the distance? Is Shabana Mahmood now nailed on for a podium finish? Or what about an outsider like Yvette Cooper? Could she yet grab a medal? If only this was a fun run, for Britain could then breathe a sigh of relief. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Depressingly, it is the race for whom Andy Burnham appoints as Chancellor when he finally enters No10 on Monday. And like some trot around the park, there is plenty of breathless effort, but very little grace, direction or actual coordination Picking a new Chancellor is one of the most important jobs for any Prime Minister. Whoever they place in the Treasury sends a signal of intent to politicians, to voters and, crucially, to the bond markets, which lend money so governments can fulfil their spending pledges. It affects us all. As ever under Labour, the country is skint. So the next occupant of 11 Downing Street will have to find money for Burnham’s pet projects while preventing the collapse of the Pound and an explosion in the cost of borrowing. By so far refusing to name his Chancellor, the incoming PM has turned this most consequential of appointments into a total circus. Excitable hacks in the Westminster bubble have spent a month speculating, based on every snippet of gossip gleaned at summer soirees. Labour MPs have sniped, briefed and backstabbed. Most read in The Sun Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is bland enough for the job, but what are her qualifications, beyond an unsuccessful posting to the Exchequer under Gordon Brown? Credit: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publis Shabana Mahmood’s Chancellor bid raises questions over her economic vision Credit: Alamy How this madness is supposed to reassure a public and a bond market already unnerved by the chaos in Government is anybody’s guess. No one denies that choosing a Chancellor requires extremely careful consideration. But Burnham is meant to have spent the past year mapping out his first 100 days in Downing Street — so why the delay? Either he is doing an incredible job of keeping his cards close to his chest, or he and his advisers simply can’t make up their minds over who should get the plum post. We deserve to know because his eventual choice will indicate the kind of government we get lumbered with. If Ed Miliband wins control of the Treasury, brace yourselves for another debilitating bout of 1970s-style socialism, with strivers and savers being squeezed until the pips squeak. It would also mean more, not less, Net Zero dogmatism. Does Burnham STILL not know whether or not he wants to be shackled to this economy-crushing eco-insanity? Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has emerged as a very warm favourite to get the nod as Chancellor. But while the financial markets rallied at the news of a supposed pragmatist in the post, what are her actual views on the economy? We are in the dark. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is bland enough for the job, but what are her qualifications, beyond an unsuccessful posting to the Exchequer under Gordon Brown? Whoever gets the job faces a Herculean task of jolting life into our flatlining economy. Good luck! Burnham has already admitted he might ask a nation creaking under a record tax burden to pay “a little more”. Since he has ruled out cutting welfare for the millions on Benefits Street, that can only mean growth-stifling, job-destroying, incentive-sapping higher taxes for the vanishingly few still working for a living. The truth is that Burnham’s opacity over who will be his Chancellor mirrors his whole strategy since his coup to topple Sir Keir Starmer. Beyond one softball broadcast interview, the occasional TikTok video and a 19-minute chat with that political colossus Gary Lineker, little is known about his blueprint for power. On sport, his favourite clothes, the indie music he listens to, well, there’s no stopping the torrent of inconsequential waffle. But on the most difficult issues of our time — the economy, for example, or defence or migration — he just changes the subject (if indeed he allows the question to be asked at all). Burnham wants us to trust him with Britain’s nuclear codes. Yet he refuses to tell us his plan for repairing our broken country or take tough decisions. He is treating us with contempt. If he runs the country in the same shifty way he’s run his affairs during the past few weeks, we might soon be looking back on Starmer as the good old days. WILL SHAPESHIFTER KEEP US SAFE? OVER a decade or more, Andy Burnham has been a keen advocate of the old Groucho Marx maxim: Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others. Even for a politician, he has a highly flexible moral compass. Indeed, since returning to the Commons so he could run for PM, he has changed his tune on any number of issues. Brexit, trans women, the bond markets, you name it. Anything to appear more palatable to a deeply sceptical electorate. Now we must hope there’s one other area where this shapeshifter is not wedded to his old ideas – on the life-or-death matter of national security. I’ve unearthed comments Burnham made in 2016 demanding the UK’s flagship counter-extremism programme Prevent, which aims to deradicalise potential future terrorists, be scrapped. In an incendiary speech, the then Shadow Home Secretary branded the scheme “toxic”, compared it to internment of IRA suspects in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and said it had created a climate where the Muslim community felt spied upon and unfairly targeted. Even in the wake of the horrific Manchester Arena bombing by a jihadist in 2017 – by which time he was the city’s mayor – he remained insistent Prevent should be axed. His stance may have won him credibility among Muslim voters, who Burnham is scared witless will desert Labour. But when the threat from Islamist extremists remains at the top of MI5’s in-tray, maintaining this view on entering Number 10 would be a disaster. Protecting the public from hellbent homegrown terrorists must be the top priority for any government. The safety of our society depends on Burnham grasping that. Comment now