Over the weekend there were a few stories briefing heavily against the Chancellor.

The most biting one was the one in the Mail on Sunday, where an anonymous backbench Tory MP predicted Osborne could lose his job within a year.

This was the most distressing observation (if you’re George Osborne or a Tory)

He just doesn’t do the work. He has got away with it until now, but the Budget mistakes have enabled people to see the reality. Previous Chancellors Tory and Labour, Nigel Lawson, Ken Clarke, Gordon Brown, Geoffrey Howe, Alistair Darling – say what you like about them, but they did the hard graft.

When someone from your own party says you’re worse than Gordon Brown, then George Osborne really is in trouble, and he doesn’t have a successful economy or electoral campaign to fall back on.

Ladbrokes have a market on whether he will be Chancellor at the next election and also who will be the next Chancellor.

Perhaps he should also be backed on the next out of the cabinet market,  as only a move to the Foreign Office wouldn’t be seen as a demotion, and William Hague seems secure in that position.

TSE