John Healey could be Britain’s most consequential Chancellor since Gordon Brown – Alistair Carmichael

John Healey is prepared to be a team player, but not at the expense of his most strongly held beliefs (Picture: Henry Nicholls) | AFP via Getty Images

It’s often the quiet ones you have to watch. While breathless media briefings over the past weeks suggested Ed Miliband – no, Shabana Mahmood, no, Ed, no, Shabana again – was a sure thing to become Andy Burnham’s Chancellor, Monday afternoon instead saw John Healey walking into 11 Downing Street to head up the Treasury.

He may not have led the betting markets, but flash-free Healey could prove to be Britain’s most consequential Chancellor since Gordon Brown. Many years ago, when my Highland colleagues and I were making the case for a lower rate of fuel duty in the Highlands and Islands, Healey made the error of comparing the price of petrol in the Highlands to the price of beer in his Wentworth constituency. Cue much outrage, milked for all it was worth.

It was the working definition of a storm in a teacup and I am quite possibly the only person alive who still remembers it. I mention it now because, in the 25 years I have known him as a parliamentary colleague, I cannot remember him putting a foot wrong on any other occasion.

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The power of an effective Chancellor

It is well-documented that Healey’s main selling point is that he offers a “safe pair of hands”. That is often a gentle way of saying that he is boring and stands for little politically. Those who think that of Healey would be wrong. He has been on the long march but it has finally taken him to the place in politics where he can make things happen.

Anyone with experience of government will tell you that little happens without the agreement of Treasury. Having spent years working as an apprentice to Brown, first as a parliamentary aide and then as a junior minister, Healey has seen up close what can be done by an effective Chancellor. He has also had enough time away from the Treasury to come to terms with its limitations.

Had he been in any danger of forgetting the constraints of his new department, he received a brutal reminder of them recently, butting heads with Rachel Reeves over the Defence Investment Plan. For Healey that will be unfinished business – but it is far from the whole story.

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He has a long record in parliament that reaches into other areas like housing and economic development – things about which the incoming Prime Minister talks a good game and on which we all want to see positive action. That is why Healey is such an interesting choice for Burnham to have made for the Treasury brief.

Healey demonstrated quiet determination, sticking to his guns on defence spending (no pun intended) and landing the decisive blow on Keir Starmer as a result. Arguably Burnham owes Healey for the smooth and orderly transition from which he was able to benefit.

In a world where egos flourish, Healey is a team player but not at any cost and not at the expense of those things in which he believes most strongly. As long as Burnham lives up to his early ambitions, he is likely to have a capable and effective ally in the Treasury. If he does not – well, it is the quiet ones you have to watch out for.

Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland