Just as Brown and Blair did in 2005, Andy Burnham aims to champion debt relief to help developing countries

• Developing nations face triple shock, UN warns

From Washington to Paris, London to Tokyo, policymakers in every large economy have been counting the costs of bond market turmoil in recent weeks. But the brunt of the pain is being borne by heavily indebted developing countries that have little hope of influencing the whims of global investors, but pay the price regardless.

Markets have responded to the war in the Middle East, and a spendthrift White House, by dumping government bonds – driving up borrowing costs just about everywhere.