Watch out PM, when Cool Phil comes knocking
IT IS far too soon to know if Theresa May will make a success of Brexit.
But after his assured, almost carefree, performance while delivering last week’s Autumn Statement, there is little doubt which Cabinet Minister is best placed to succeed her: Chancellor Philip Hammond.
In the Commons on Wednesday, resting his elbow on the Despatch Box while teasing Boris and firing back at Labour hecklers, he could have been auditioning for Prime Minister’s Questions instead of delivering a sober assessment of the nation’s finances.
And instead of the customary boring photo of the Chancellor climbing into his official limo for the 100-yard drive to Parliament, we were treated to a glossy picture of Hammond in the Treasury, leaning languidly against a window.
With St James’s Park glinting in the autumn sun behind him, and cup of tea in hand, it was a shot worthy of a Saga male model.
What’s more, a faded black and white photo of him as a long-haired teenager emerged, and he was praised by an old girlfriend for his ‘snogging’ technique.
Quite a turnaround for the man known as ‘Spreadsheet Phil’ for most of his Cabinet career.
When Hammond was Foreign Secretary, David Cameron regarded him as so dull he reputedly asked aides to make sure that he was never sat next to him on long-haul flights.
His new-found confidence stems from the fact that he has finally got the department he always wanted, the Treasury.
‘He knows the numbers better than any mandarin or Minister, including the PM,’ said one MP close to Hammond, adding: ‘He knows it and they know it.’
Hammond has surprised many by standing up to Mrs May in Budget talks. She wanted him to do more to help the ‘just about managings’ – the so called ‘JAMs’ – she identified on the steps of No. 10 when she became Prime Minister.
Insiders say she wanted him to do more to ease the impact of benefit cuts, reduce the ‘air passenger levy’ to soften the soaring cost of foreign package holidays and give bigger tax breaks to the low-paid.
In fact, there was little jam for them, today or tomorrow.
‘Spreadsheet Phil’ refused to be pushed around by Mrs May, insisting the books had to balance.
At the centre of it all, of course, is Brexit. One of the reasons Mrs May was so keen to help the ‘JAMs’ is because she knows they are likely to be in even more of a jam in the next two or three years because of it.
Pro-Brexit MPs launched hysterical attacks on experts who issued dire warnings of the impact on living standards of leaving the EU. Hammond responded with zen-like calm.
Slowly and subtly, without being disloyal, he has created space between himself and his Downing Street neighbour over Brexit.
Both campaigned, albeit halfheartedly, for Remain in the referendum. But while Mrs May has embraced Brexit with the zeal of a convert, Hammond refuses to act like a true believer, making it clear he thinks gung-ho talk by Boris Johnson of ditching Britain’s existing trade deals with no guarantee of replacements is mad.
If Brexit does lead to economic disaster, Mrs May is unlikely to survive and Boris won’t escape the blame. But ‘Spreadsheet Phil’, who urged caution all along, could find himself within kissing distance of moving from No 11 to No 10.