f you go tiger shooting you'd want to go with George Osborne – Conservative grandee
Share 2
inShare2
Email 
George Osborne, pictured visiting the Birmingham enterprise zone in July 2011, provokes mixed emotions among Tories. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Over the past few weeks I have been working on a profile of George Osborne which ran in Monday's Guardian. Inevitably you cannot include every element.
So here are a few findings which hit the cutting room floor but which are worth a mention. These highlight a few themes. Osborne is not wildly loved by many fellow Tory MPs and there is suspicion about his inner circle. He will probably need to turn on the charm if he wants to beat Boris Johnson in a future leadership contest. Over at the Daily Mail Tim Shipman wrote an interesting blog on Monday about Johnson's popularity at the 02 tennis tournament on Sunday.
My findings are not all negative about Osborne. There is a Liberal Democrat minister who speaks of Osborne in respectful tones and a Tory grandee who says the chancellor is a remarkable politician who commands love and affection among members of his team.
This is what I picked up from the cutting room floor for my profile published ahead of the chancellor's autumn statement on Tuesday:
• The opposition MP whose jokes about Osborne were enjoyed by Conservatives. This is what the MP said of the reaction to a speech he made in the House of Commons before the last general election:
I made a few jokes about George Osborne and one about Eric Pickles. The reaction was interesting. George came up to me and said he enjoyed the joke about Eric Pickles. Around ten Tory MPs came up to me and said they enjoyed the jokes about George.
• The senior Tory, a loyal supporter of the government, who says Osborne needs to clarify his role. The MP said:
I think we are reaching a tipping point. George has got to make up his mind. He has got to decide if he can combine being chancellor, party chairman and chief of staff to the prime minister. It may be that he doesn't really do these secondary roles even on a part time basis. But he is in danger of allowing Labour to give the impression that he does. He has to make sure that he only gives one impression - a relentless focus on the economy.
• The senior Tory, with a respected track record on economics, who thinks Osborne and David Cameron are lightweights. The MP said:
George and Dave are the same. They are not deep thinkers. They don't sit there and worry about the human condition. They are not great readers of serious tomes. They just find it easy to do politics and they do it well. But there is no depth.
You don't sense that George chews over macroeconomic policy with big people in the City in the way Nigel Lawson did with Tim Congdon.
George just asks [senior adviser] Rupert [Harrison] what the numbers are. George is not qualified to run McKinsey or Bain and Co. He would not be anywhere near the top in those organisations. But because he has a sharp political brain he is apparently well qualified to run the UK economy.
• Team Osborne is blamed for undermining Patrick McLoughlin, the chief whip. One senior Tory said:
A lot of colleagues really don't like the whispering, which emanates from Team Osborne, about Patrick McLoughlin. There is a lot of chat about how he is not up to it. They have to be really careful. Patrick is an authentic working class Tory. His dad died when he was young, he became a miner and then managed to get selected for a conservative seat in Derbyshire for a byelection when the seat was controlled by the Dukes of Devonshire. That was an achievement. Osborne's circle really should not allow a gap to open up with someone like Patrick.
• A Liberal Democrat minister who respects Osborne's grasp of the political game. The minister said:
George Osborne understands the political contours much better than anyone else at Westminster really. In debates in the house he can throw barbs at Labour MPs that he has picked up from some obscure article in the Independent on Sunday. It is probably a bit beneath him but is very effective. That is quite unlike Nick Clegg who probably has no idea who most Labour MPs are.
• A Tory grandee who knows Osborne well says he has an extraordinary knack of hiring the right people and then winning their loyalty:
George Osborne inspires total loyalty and devotion from people who work for him. He has an incredible ability to select people. Look at Rupert Harrison, [his most senior special adviser at the Treasury], and Matt Hancock, [his former chief of staff who is MP for West Suffolk]. He has a great instinct about people. Many of his staff have stayed with him from his time in opposition.
They are all completely devoted to George because he is totally straight and has a stellar intellect. He is very tough. If you go tiger shooting you'd want to go with George Osborne.