Osborne will Tuesday do what no chancellor has done in nearly 20 years — address parliament on the final day of the vote of last week's budget. It is common for a chancellor to present the budget — which he did on March 16 — and then leave it to go through debates until the final vote. However, after U-turns on welfare reforms and the resignation of the Welfare Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, he has been forced to go to the House of Commons to defend himself, in a very unusual move.
Today MPs conclude the debate on #Budget2016. @bisgovuk will lead today's debate. Find out more https://t.co/RWc0mMqjA6
— House of Commons (@HouseofCommons) March 22, 2016
Osborne is Cameron's preferred successor as leader of the Conservative Party — having said he would step down ahead of the next elections, due in 2020 — and the chancellor used his annual budget speech to outline a series of reforms in welfare — chiefly cutting the budget for personal independence payments (PIP) to disabled people — while at the same time giving tax breaks to middle-class people.
Having precipitated the resignation of Duncan Smith, causing a huge row within the Conservative Party, Osborne now finds himself having to make a U-turn on the reforms, leaving him with a US$5.71 black hole in his budget.
Disappearing Chancellor
Worse still, when his opposition counterpart, Labour's John McDonnell tabled an urgent question to Osborne on the budget changes, the Chancellor failed to turn up to answer it, preferring to field an underling, which many — both in his own party and on opposition benches — felt was a sign of political weakness.
"This whole debacle started two weeks ago when the Government announced cuts of up to £150 a week in personal independence payments to disabled people. By the day of the Budget last week, we discovered that those cuts to disabled people had been forced through by the Chancellor to pay for cuts in capital gains tax for the wealthiest 5% in our society, and for cuts in corporation tax," McDonnell told parliament.
"I agree with the former Work and Pensions Secretary: such cuts are not defensible when placed in a Budget that benefits high earners. How can the Chancellor any longer suggest that we are "all in this together?"
With his Chancellor notably absent — presumably rapidly finding out how to fill the US$5.71 hole in his budget — Cameron was forced to come out fighting to save his own skin. He praised: "the work of my right hon. friend the Chancellor in turning our economy around. We can only improve life chances if our economy is secure and strong. Without sound public finances, you end up having to raise taxes or make even deeper cuts in spending."
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was quick to denounce the absence of the chancellor.
"The Prime Minister is here today, the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is here today, and practically every other Cabinet Minister is here today, but what has happened to the Chancellor of the Exchequer? Where is he?
"Instead of covering for his friend, could the Prime Minister not have asked him whether he would be kind enough to come along to the House to explain why, for the first time in Parliament in my memory, a Government's Budget has fallen apart within two days of its delivery?" he said.
“How can the Chancellor suggest that we’re all in this together?” @johnmcdonnellMP #Budget2016https://t.co/DT6XGJDxDQ
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) March 21, 2016
Osborn will Tuesday seek to stamp his authority on his role, which is seen to have been severely dented by the affair and thrown into doubt any chance of him relieving Cameron of the leadership without something of a fight. Cameron himself has lost political worth in what has been a bad week for the Conservatives already deeply divided ahead of the In-Out referendum on the UK's membership on June 23.
