May and Hammond’s chequered history

Ahead of tomorrow’s Autumn Statement, speculation has been growing about what policies the government have up their sleeves. However, another thing to look out for is strained relations between the Chancellor and the Prime Minister. Speculation has been growing in Westminster for some time that Theresa May and Philip Hammond don’t particularly see eye-to-eye.

So, with that in mind, Mr S was intrigued to read an article by Rachel Sylvester in today’s Times. In a piece titled ‘our control-freak PM has met her match’, Sylvester looks at relations between the pair before May became Prime Minister. She says that an MP tells her Hammond regularly told Osborne he could not stand the then Home Secretary:

‘There is an underlying confidence in Mr Hammond, a Jaguar-driving former company director with a dry sense of humour, which is sometimes missing in Mrs May. Under Mr Cameron, the then foreign secretary and home secretary occasionally acted as a team, presenting themselves as the voices of wisdom in urging caution on an over-excited prime minister too obsessed by presentation.