Lord Burns of Pitshanger in the London Borough of Ealing would not be out of place in the script for “Yes Minister”.

He has acquired the nickname “Teflon Terry” for his ability to flit, seemingly unaffected, from one sticky situation to another and has a CV that effortlessly melds Whitehall, a wide selection of quoted companies’ boardrooms and plenty of profile-raising work for new Labour.

His tenure as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, from 1991 to 1998, included the national humiliation of Britain’s enforced departure from the exchange-rate mechanism. In 2005 he served up a report on the future governance of the BBC which introduced the notion, wildly unpopular at the Corporation, of “top-slicing” the licence fee to use some of the money elsewhere.

He had already been named as a potential chairman of the BBC, and was also in the frame to run the media regulator Ofcom. Lord Burns chaired the Government’s controversial inquiry into hunting.

In 2002 he became chairman of Abbey National, hiring Luqman Arnold as chief executive to turn the underperforming bank around. Progress was slow and much mocked, and Abbey ended up in the arms of the Spanish Banco Santander. Lord Burns was jeered by shareholders at the Abbey’s acrimonious 2004 annual meeting. He remains on the Santander board.

He spent two years as chairman of Marks and Spencer, his time there marred by a failure to find a successor to Stuart, now Sir Stuart, Rose and a row over his pay-off on departure.

The much-liked Lord Burns has moved through all this amiably and apparently unfazed by controversy, his political antennae always perfectly tuned. Born in the North East and grammar school educated, he is a passionate follower of Queens Park Rangers and of serious music. Chairman of the governing body of the Royal Academy of Music, his appearance last year on Radio 3’s Private Passions featured an impeccable selection of great works.