George Osborne turned up in the Commons chamber with a clear plan to get through this Budget debate: turn it into a partisan slug fest. His aim was to make it a straight Labour/Tory fight and by doing that, rally the Tory benches to him. With some help from the whips and the PPSs, he largely succeeded in doing that. Crucially for him, he got through the speech without incurring any further damage.
As soon as Osborne began talking about the Budget, Labour started trying to intervene on him. Chris Leslie was first up, demanding an apology for the proposed PIP cuts. Osborne, in a response that set the tone for the rest of the speech, demanded that Labour apologise for the financial crisis.
When Yvette Cooper asked him to explain how the money that would have been raised by PIP cuts would be made up, he replied with a pre-prepared attack on her record as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Then, in a sign that Osborne was determined to swing hard at every Labour opponent, he criticised Rachel Reeves following her intervention for not thanking the government for the flood defence scheme for Leeds that was in the Budget. By the end of the speech, Tory backbenchers were asking him about the infamous Liam Byrne ‘there’s no money’ note and generally cheering the Chancellor on.
Today’s appearance hasn’t solved Osborne’s problems, not by a long chalk. But it has got him through his first Commons appearance since Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation. Osborne will also be relieved that there were no difficult questions from his own side and that there is still no shortage of Tory MPs prepared to lob him soft ball questions. But the key question is whether today marks the beginning of a return to Tory discipline or not.
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