The curious case of the cancelled chancellor’s speech…

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George Osborne black tieBy Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Paul Waugh reported last night that George Osborne appears to have cancelled a major speech on tax ahead of the budget. It was believed that the chancellor would be announcing lower personal tax rates for low and middle income workers – yet the only message that Osborne put out yesterday was an attack piece on Ed Balls in the Guardian.

As Waugh rightly points out, Osborne usually uses Op-Ed articles to flag up key lines ahead of major policy speeches – yet instead on this occasion we have a cancelled speech and, no mention of any new policies in his Guardian article.

So the obvious question is – did the chancellor cancel his speech and re-write his Guardian piece on the basis of Ed Balls’ Sun article from the day before? In that article Balls attacked the Tories over fuel prices in the Sun (which must have hurt George and the Tories), but was it enough to change his plans? Labour certainly think so. Speaking to LabourList, a party source said:

“Osborne is clearly rattled by Labour’s attacks on his failing economic policy and our call this week for the VAT rise on fuel to be reversed.”

“Why would he cancel a serious speech on the economy in favour of an article attacking Ed Balls? It read like it was written by an intern at Tory HQ not a serious contribution by a chancellor preparing for a major budget.”

A cancelled speech. A hastily rewritten Guardian article. A crucial message dropped from the media grid. What exactly is the chancellor so scared of?

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