There’s a great deal of rumbling on the Westminster grapevine about George Osborne’s position in the Tory party. The FT set the ball a-rolling yesterday, with an article on the “dinner table” ire aimed at the Shadow Chancellor. It contained a juicy quote from a Tory MP, claiming that Osborne “was a good chancellor for the good times – now he’s lost credibility”, as well as an outline of a “reshuffle scenario” whereby William Hague is moved to the Shadow Chancellorship, with Osborne heading to an “enhanced party chairman role”. That’s been followed up by posts across the political blogosphere, as well as an article by Iain Martin in today’s Telegraph calling for Osborne to be moved by “early next year”. The latest, courtesy of today’s Standard, is that Osborne is cutting back on his job as “unoffical party chairman” to concentrate on his principal role.
Now, all the speculation may be for nought. The likelihood of Cameron moving Osborne is next to zero. But I thought I’d throw open the question to CoffeeHousers anyway: should Osborne remain shadow chancellor? As I see it, three things need to be weighed against each other:
1) Whether Osborne’s performing at a time when the economy is far-and-away the most important issue in politics.
2) Whether his talents would be better deployed elsewhere.
3) How much damage moving him would cause to the Tory party.
In brief, my take on those points would be:
1) The Tory response to the economic and financial crises has been flimsy. Osborne should take the blame for that. But there are – as Fraser points out – reasons to keep faith in him for a little while longer. That faith could dry up soon, though, if Team Osborne continues to let Labour set the economic narrative.
2) Yes, Osborne’s talents probably are better suited to another role. It’s long been suggested that he should fill some sort of uber-chairman position.
3) As Benedict Brogan put it in a typically eloquent and persuasive post yesterday, moving Osborne would be the perfect present for Gordon Brown. It would seem to be a stark admission that the Tories’ economic message isn’t up-to-scratch, and could trigger all kinds of internal party wrangling and manoeuvring.
For the time being, it’s point 3) that clinches it for me. Cameron should keep Osborne where he is, although Osborne needs to up his game – and quick.
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