George Osborne is having a good summer. He got in first with wooing the new intake of Tory MPs, to the extent that many of them seem slightly besotted with the warm and friendly Chancellor who welcomes them cheerily to drinks events. He humiliated Boris Johnson with jokes about his ‘dilapidated’ campaign bunker – and was at the very least rather pleased that Theresa May ended up humiliating the Mayor by refusing to approve the use of water cannon in London. Now he’s top of the ConHome Tory leader survey for the first time. The Chancellor has risen nine points and got the support of 30.9 per cent of the 700 Tory members surveyed, ahead of Sajid Javid on 18.7 per cent and Johnson on 16.6 per cent.
This is ideal for Osborne, who many suspect would like to use Javid as an aid in the leadership contest before winning in the final round.
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