Tory MPs content with ‘boring’ Budget

How has George Osborne’s Budget gone down with his party? The Tory MPs I’ve spoken to in the past 24 hours or so since the Budget seem reasonably content with it. They’re not skipping through the corridors singing, but they’re equally not furious or despairing. Most seem to have sympathy with the lack of a rabbit in the Chancellor’s speech, even though they’re a bit disappointed that the Chancellor gave enough signals for them to think he was keeping a rabbit in his hat, only for a hamster to come scuttling out in the form of his Help to Buy ISAs.

One senior Tory backbencher says: ‘The judgement that he’s called has probably been right. It’s better to try to reassure people about competence and responsibility than to try to excite and the price of that is that there is nothing exciting.’ Another backbencher says it was ‘boring but competent. Unflashy.