Osborne urged: keep punching the bruise on threats to economy
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15
GEORGE OSBORNE is doing his emergency budget, warning that he’ll have to increase income tax by 2p and reduce spending on the NHS.
The BBC calls asking if I’ve seen the letter from 50 Tory MPs saying they would refuse to support any such budget.
I call George. I can hear that he’s taken aback. Thinking about it, it feels more and more that he’s acting like he is prepared to sacrifice himself. He’s forced the focus of the campaign back on to the economy, but at what personal cost?
back in April, George gave a punchy interview describing the Leave campaign as ‘dishonest’ and ‘economically illiterate’. He sounded like a man who wasn’t going to go down for the lack of shooting back. Later he took me aside in Downing street and said he thought the campaign was going well and we should keep ‘punching the bruise’.
similarly, at a meeting of the no10 team discussing whether we should be making the positive case for being in the EU rather than emphasising the risks of leaving, George had said: ‘Everyone slags off negative campaigning, but it’s the only consistent message that’s working for us.’
Afterwards, in the Chancellor’s dining room, we were talking about how to get Labour to score some runs in the referendum debate. Ameet Gill [no10 director of strategy] made me and George laugh when he said: ‘Yeah, if you thought George Osborne was an a ******* , wait until you see these guys!’ To his credit, George thinks it’s funny.
but now nagging at the back of my mind is: has this emergency budget misfired? should we have suggested such horrific solutions? All of us can see the news is going down like a cup of cold sick with MPs.
Later that morning, DC is concerned Prime Minister’s Questions will be a nightmare, with Conservative MPs waiting to stick the knife in over what’s being called George’s ‘punishment budget’. MP Oliver Dowden [Cameron’s ex-no10 deputy chief of staff] says: ‘MPs have gone “potty pots” about it!’
The following day begins with a pre-6am call from James Chapman, George’s director of communications. The bbC is leading on nigel Lawson criticising the Treasury for ‘peddling phoney forecasts’ to scare people into staying in.
James wants us to make it as uncomfortable for them as they are for us, saying: ‘George really went for it yesterday – and win or lose, he’s going to have to live with this for years.’
I agree. He has left himself exposed.