Today’s Sunday Telegraph front page has sparked off a flutter of speculation about whether George Osborne might be moved as Chancellor. I suspect that the short answer to this question is no. Osborne and Cameron are inextricably linked and to move him would be akin to the Prime Minister declaring that both his political and economic strategies have been wrong. He would not long survive such an admission.
I also sense that Osborne’s stock in the parliamentary party is recovering from the battering it took with last year’s Budget. The fact that this year’s Budget was doorstep-ready, has survived the Labour and media onslaught and gone down relatively well with the voters has helped him with MPs.
Paddy Hennessy is right that Osborne’s blunt manner and desire for cuts has strained his relationship with some Cabinet colleagues. Certain Secretaries of State feels that the growth Cabinets where Osborne grills them on progress made by their departments in terms of reregulation and the like are close to a form of ritual humiliation.
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