Who’s the new Chancellor of the Exchequer? Whatshisname again, Dreamboat, Sunbeam, Pumpkin?

One of the signal political achievements of Alistair Darling is that he has made himself so forgettable. The MP for Edinburgh South West has served in the four government departments that have the most direct impact on business: the Treasury, Workand Pensions, Transport and, most recently, Trade and Industry. His tenure in each has been marked by an ability to take inflammatory issues and move them off the front pages. Mr Darling pushed through stakeholder pensions while at the DWP. After the failure of Railtrack and the introduction of Network Rail, he took over Transport and did an admirable job of making it less newsworthy. And, over the past year at the DTI, he has dissipated the controversy over both the future of nuclear power and the fate of the Post Office – procrastinating on a clear decision for one and refusing to make a choice on the other.

It would be understandable if Mr Darling’s career in Government were to become even more unremarkable now that he is moving to Number 11. The expectation is that he will be dwarfed by his predecessor, both by his legacy and by his power now as Prime Minister. Mr Darling is a close political ally and personal friend of Gordon Brown. His room for manoeuvre in macro-economic policy making is severely limited, as Mr Brown put in place the spending targets and set in train future tax cuts at the last Budget. And the new Chancellor may well judge that after a decade of strong growth, low unemployment and low inflation, his mission is more of the same.

But a Mini-Me as Chancellor would squander not only a critical opportunity, but also Mr Darling’s considerable talents. Returning to the Treasury after nine years, he should put these qualities to work to address one key issue: tax.

The enduring measure of his Chancellorship will be reforming a convoluted tax code that burdens business with its complexity and riles ordinary taxpayers with its inequality. Mr Darling needs to address and explain the tax treatment of private equity and nonresident domiciles. More significantly, he has the chance to show an understanding of small business sorely lacking from his predecessor by streamlining the tax code.

Simplifying tax would not only make Mr Darling a memorable Chancellor. It would give his party a powerful platform on which to challenge the traditional party of lower, leaner taxation, the Conservatives.

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