As the country begins to anticipate the fall of Sir Keir Starmer and his replacement by Andy Burnham, industry, Treasury insiders and the bond markets are all asking fretfully if this will mean that Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for ‘Energy Security and Net Zero’ will become Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Some are so appalled by the idea that they would rather keep the woeful Rachel Reeves in post.

Mr Burnham is thought to favour Mr Miliband, but as he gets closer to office, he will be unable to close his ears to the hostility of business, senior officials and lenders to such an appointment.

It is already in the open. Mr Burnham has also been warned that, if he picks Ed Miliband, a fierce climate zealot and heir to a hard-Leftist dynasty, he will be installing a dangerous rival who will seek – as Chancellors so often do – to dominate him. 

The decision will be Mr Burnham’s first major test if, as almost everyone now expects, he topples Sir Keir and sweeps into Downing Street on the back of his decisive victory in the Makerfield by-election.

The economy is in fairly deep trouble, not least thanks to the energy inflation caused by Donald Trump’s war in the Gulf, and whoever he puts in the Treasury will have to do a great deal to calm nerves.

It is all very well, as the Tories found, to indulge yourself with infighting and careerism. 

The exhilaration, for Mr Burnham, of winning his by-election must be intoxicating. But even the top job in politics can turn swiftly to dust and ashes if you cannot get the economy right.

His handling of his most important appointment is a key test for a man who has risen to the top of his party – and now, it seems, of politics – without allowing anyone to find out what he thinks and what he stands for. 

Once we had plenty of time to grow weary of politicians, whose blurred faces we saw in black-and-white newspapers or perhaps heard, crackly and distant, on the radio. Now we see them all the time and every day in full colour.

The modern world, ravenous for electronic novelty, uses up its leading figures with ferocious energy. 

The novelty of this morning is already nearly out of fashion by tonight. Yet it certainly looks as if Labour’s unreconstructed Left sees Mr Burnham as one of theirs – tax, spend and then tax again, and then borrow rashly, with added Net Zero to ruin what is left of the economy.

If this is not his plan, that would be a relief. He will not be the first Labour leader to have been all things to all men on his way to power, and then cautious in office when the sums stop adding up.

But in general, such figures have to pacify and appease their followers, at least at the outset, and each time it happens, it is harder for them to retreat.

If Mr Burnham wishes to prove us wrong, he should start by ruling out Mr Miliband as Chancellor. But it will only be a start.