If you thought things were bad with Rachel Reeves as Chancellor, things could get a whole lot worse when Andy Burnham decides upon her successor. The incoming Prime Minister is expected to announce within days who will get the keys to the Treasury, allowing them to effectively decide how rich or poor we all are.

Red Ed Miliband is the bookies’ favourite for the job, while former Health Secretary and one-time leadership rival Wes Streeting is another potential candidate. So is Pat McFadden, regarded as the wise old owl of Sir Keir Starmer’s current Cabinet. Whoever it is, can they do a better job than the one done by Ms Reeves, the first ever woman to become Chancellor?

I wouldn’t bet your bottom dollar on it.

Ms Reeves is due to deliver her Mansion House speech later this evening, when she will set out her track record since moving into No11 Downing Street two years ago.

Some had suggested she shouldn’t bother with the speech, given that she only has days left in her job.

But to be fair to the Chancellor, she is sticking to her guns and maintaining her belief that the economy is in fine fettle.

It’s probably worth looking at her back catalogue and some facts and figures before making a final assessment.

Within weeks of entering government, Ms Reeves set the tone for Chancellorship by snatching the Winter Fuel payment away from almost 10 million pensioners in a political catastrophe.

It was a decision which triggered an immediate groundswell of anger towards her.

A massive U-turn some 10 months later, largely thanks to campaigning by the Express, did little to assuage the feeling that she wasn’t up to the job.

The political damage will linger for years to come.

Less than three months after the winter fuel debacle Ms Reeves was at it again, delivering a double hammerblow when she delivered her first Budget in October 2024.

First she decided to clobber farmers with a punishing ‘Family Farms Tax’ by hiking the Inheritance Tax threshold.

This was again a bad political move, prompting high profile demonstrations which were backed by celebrities including Jeremy Clarkson.

She also chose to ramp up National Insurance contributions for employers, the effects of which are still being felt by firms up and down the country.

Inflation was at 2.2% – very close to the Bank of England target – when Labour took over from the Tories in July 2024.

It’s now 2.8% having hit 3.8% last summer.

In the same period unemployment has gone up from 4.1% to 4.9% while government borrowing has surged above 5%.

Overall, the economy has largely flatlined in the past two years, albeit fighting against the significant global headwinds of two wars and Donald Trump’s tariffs chaos.

So what will a Burnham government do to reignite the UK’s economic fortunes?

Unleash a £38 billion tax blitz, according to Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK.

Mr Farage’s party has conducted a report into the prime minister-in-waiting’s pledges which claims he would bring Labour’s total increase in taxation from about £66billion to more than £100billion a year.

This includes promises of a “care levy” of up to 10 per cent of the value of estates after death, reforming the rates of capital gains tax (CGT) and imposing National Insurance on landlords’ rental income.

Implementing a torrent of new taxes not mentioned in Labour’s 2024 manifesto will increase pressure on Mr Burnham to call an early election.

He is due to be elected unopposed as Labour leader and prime minister on Friday.

The UK already has its highest tax burden on record, following Ms Reeves multiple raids.

Mr Burnham has declined to set out detailed tax plans ahead of his first Budget, but has pledged to remain within Labour’s fiscal rules, which require debt to be falling as a percentage of GDP.

But there would be jitters if he appoints Mr Miliband, the Energy Secretary, as his Chancellor next week.

City bosses and ultra-high-net-worth individuals have warned that a Left-wing Chancellor would reduce market confidence in his government.

Six more days until we find out.