U.K.’s Budget Master Plans for More Pain
George Osborne, U.K. chancellor of the exchequer, holds the dispatch box containing the first budget by a Tory-majority government in almost two decades, as he exits 11 Downing Street in London on July 8, 2015.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
When the Conservative Party won an unexpected majority in U.K. elections in May, it didn’t just mean George Osborne would get to keep his job as chancellor of the exchequer. It also put the keys to 10 Downing Street within his grasp. “Three years ago, before the recovery, his political career was seen as pretty much over,” says Adam Ludlow, a senior consultant at political polling company ComRes in London. “Now that times are good, confidence in him is high.”
Since he delivered his July budget, Osborne has become most bookmakers’ favorite for prime minister when David Cameron steps down sometime before May 7, 2020. “This was more than just a budget—it looked like someone staking out his political territory and testing his leadership chances,” says Wyn Grant, a professor of politics at the University of Warwick.