Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why the Budget won’t be a welcome rest from Europe for George Osborne

After a few weeks of banging on about Europe, Downing Street hopes that there will be more of a domestic focus in Westminster for a little while at least. The Budget is approaching, and George Osborne is already coming to terms with what he can and can’t do.

It turns out that now is not the time to be politically radical, as Tory MPs are already in a rather bad mood about Europe, and trying to change the subject won’t really make enough of a difference. So the Chancellor has already had to retreat on reforms he was considering to pension tax relief after it was made clear to him that Conservative MPs would not weather it. Given the government’s majority is only going to get weaker as time goes on, the chances are that Osborne won’t be able to attempt anything more radical before the next election – and by that time his mind will be elsewhere.

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