The new chancellor's in-tray is bulging with bad news and hard challenges

Such has been the political drama unfolding this month central to which was the bringing down of a sitting prime minister with a large parliamentary majority it has almost passed without notice that a rare chancellor of the exchequer resignation has also taken place. Rishi Sunak’s surprise announcement pivotal to the toppling of Boris Johnson came out of the blue and unlike other ministerial resignations was driven as much by policy differences as prime ministerial behaviour.

I have known and reported on 12 chancellors from Geoffrey Howe to now Nadhim Zahawi. Only one before Sunak resigned Nigel Lawson in 1989 after weeks in which tensions had built up between him and Margaret Thatcher triggered by her decision to employ her own personal...