Though he had a reasonably good Prime Minister’s Questions for someone who hasn’t done much of it, George Osborne did stumble quite badly on one question. He ended up telling SNP MP Alison Thewliss about the importance of welfare reform – in response to a question about women who had given birth to a third child conceived as a result of rape. She was complaining about the way the government was requiring women in this situation to prove that they had been raped in order to qualify for tax credits once the two-child limit has been imposed. The Chancellor replied:
‘It is perfectly reasonable to have a welfare system that is fair not just for those who need it but for those who pay for it. We have identified the specific cases that the hon. Lady refers to in her question, in which women have been victims of domestic abuse—or, indeed, rape—and that is why we are consulting and discussing changes to protect vulnerable women.’
This response sums up Osborne’s greatest weakness, and one he will need to address as he limbers up to run for the Tory leadership. He can come across as totally tone deaf. His point about the welfare system is of course right, but it is not the right way to answer a question about women who have been raped. David Cameron, for all his Flashman antics, rarely makes such slips in the Chamber when serious questions about members of the public in dire straits are raised: he saves his slip-ups for members of Parliament, in the main.
Similarly, Osborne’s remarks that MPs voting in favour of air strikes showed that Britain has ‘got its mojo back’ suggested that the Chancellor needs to watch his tone, in case he appears rather uncaring. His meaning is understandable: many feared that Britain was turning its back on the world after the 2013 Syria vote, and last week’s result does show this not to be the case. And he has used the phrase before, in a different context. But he was talking this week about air strikes, not a motion on Austin Powers defeating Dr Evil. ‘Mojo’ was not the right word.
Osborne did start the autumn taking greater care over his language. He gave an interview to Andrew Marr in which he talked about welfare reform in noticeably more compassionate terms than he previously had – but that may have been forgotten during the furore over tax credits.
This weakness is something he needs to take care to overcome: a number of Tories in Labour-facing constituencies have remarked to me that they notice a marked difference between the way their constituents react to a visit from Cameron and their response to George Osborne pitching up. This is partly because all Chancellors must be the ones most closely associated with the difficult decisions of any government, but this Chancellor wants to become Prime Minister, and needs to mind his language. He is also far less frosty and mechanical in private than he appears in public – which is why so many Tory MPs like him – and he should surely want the voters to get a glimpse of that too.
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