Three tasks for new chancellor John Healey

Andy Burnham has appointed John Healey, the former defence secretary, as chancellor. It was certainly a surprise. Home secretary Shabana Mahmood had been seen as a certainty for the job at No. 11, but at the last moment The incoming prime minister, appointed Healy instead. The markets were relieved. Given that the potential alternatives were Ed Miliband or Angela Rayner, that is not saying very much.Still, at defence, and as a former minister in Gordon Brown's Treasury, John Healey carved out a