While there has been much speculation as to the identity of the next chancellor, to be appointed when Andy Burnham becomes premier, there has been far less comment about who might become foreign secretary.

Yet the issue of Burnham’s foreign policy is just as important as his economic strategy, from the point of view of rebuilding a viable electoral coalition around Labour and, more importantly, ensuring the British people’s safety in a peaceful world.

Under Starmer, nothing alienated more voters than his embrace of Israel’s genocidal aggression against the Palestinians, rhetorically endorsing it when opposition leader, blocking calls for a ceasefire for months, and then continuing to offer support when in government, not least by rejecting a total arms embargo.

Moreover, Starmer spent most of his premiership appeasing the whims of Donald Trump, now almost-universally seen as an erratic and aggressive menace.

And Labour has continued to strain every sinew to prolong the conflict in Ukraine rather than working for a solution.  That in turn serves as the main justification for the epic arms spending binge the government has committed to, which will hamstring such economic radicalism as Burnham may which to embrace.

So a fresh start in foreign policy is urgently needed. It will not be achieved by leaving the plodding New Labour incumbent, Yvette Cooper, in place.

Still less will it be served by the rumoured return of David Miliband to a leading role. It has been mooted that he might be persuaded to come back from New York, where he has worked since leaving British politics in a strop when his brother Ed was elected Labour leader, to serve as Foreign Secretary.

This might involve him being appointed to the House of Lords, much as Rishi Sunak did with David Cameron.

Nothing could be less likely to produce the rethink required. Miliband was foreign secretary under Gordon Brown and, when not plotting to oust his boss, he did his job on strictly Blairite lines, including Russophobic posturing at the time of the Georgia conflict in 2008.

He was and — as far as is known — still is an unrepentant supporter of the Iraq aggression, a litmus test for any Labour politician, while the extent of his knowledge of the US extraordinary rendition and torture programme of those years is still murky.

And there is little to suggest he would represent any shift in policy in relation to Palestine or relations with Trump’s rogue-state administration.

Instead, it would reinforce the impression given by the appointment of James Purnell as Burnham’s chief of staff, that the new government will be relying on New Labour-era retreads.

The new prime minister must understand that there is no possibility of a sustained new course at home while there is continuity with imperialist policy abroad.

If he wants to look to Labour’s past for guidance, he should examine the record of Jeremy Corbyn, whose break with establishment convention on foreign policy was popular, if anathema to the ruling class.

A Burnham government that does not support Palestine, break with Trump, end an imperialist arms build-up and work for peace in Europe will fail. That should inform the choice of foreign secretary.

Populist plutocrats

Donald Trump has made billions of dollars since becoming president, largely through dubious crypto-currency ventures.

Nigel Farage has been paid more than £20,000 an hour for marketing gold bullion, just one of his many side-hustles.

The Reform leader also received £5 million in a secret donation from a cryptocurrency speculator based abroad, for reasons which are anything but clear.

This is the squalid reality of so-called populism. It is a plutocratic scam by politicians that talk up the interests of the workers while really interested only in serving themselves.