Osborne v Balls at Treasury questions

Tomorrow is the first Osborne Balls Treasury Questions clash. It should be a fiery encounter. There’s little love lost between the two men, they are both aggressive despatch box performers  and the two of them know that their clash over the economy is likely to be the major factor in determining the next election result.

Balls has a fair amount of material to work with: the disappointing growth—or, more accurately, non-growth—figures for the final quarter of last year, the limited success of the national insurance holiday for new small companies and the failure to publish a growth plan. Set against that is that Osborne will be able to accuse Balls of having been the man who designed the golden rule that failed, the system of financial regulation that failed and so on.

One thing that is certain is that Osborne will have an impressive amount of backbench support. The Chancellor is becoming an increasingly popular figure on the Tory side, I’m told he went down well at the ’22 this evening, and Greg Hands, his PPS, is always very effective at ensuring a slew of helpful questions from the benches behind Osborne.