George Osborne and David Cameron deny any Granita-style succession pact

In a joint interview the Tory leader and Shadow Chancellor deny that there was Brown-Blair Granita-style pact for one to seek the leadership first and the other later.

George Osborne tells The Telegraph's Andrew Porter:

“We did talk about the leadership. But we made it clear that – certainly I made it clear – that this was a decision for each of us as individuals. I could see the way David was thinking. He was absolutely up for it and he was going to go for it... Having a conversation with David about it in a way helped make my mind up. Not because he tried to dissuade me or anything, but because he was so clearly up for it and I so clearly wasn’t.  So I thought absolutely the right decision was to very quickly rule myself out and then to be his campaign manager and get David elected. So we never had a deal."

George Osborne won ConservativeHome's Campaign of the Year Award 2006 for managing David Cameron's leadership bid.  His inheritance tax cut saw him shoot up our shadow cabinet satisfaction league.  In members' valuation he now stands alongside the much longer-established William Hague and David Davis in terms of approval levels.  In recent times Osborne formed an alliance with Andy Coulson to push the party away from the uber-modernisation that contributed to the trough in party support during the Brown honeymoon.

Cameron and Osborne have also been interviewed by the Daily Mail but that's not yet online.  Ben Brogan has previewed it, though.  We'll update this post as and when we get more...

Both men are currently in China.  In a 36 second Webcameron interview - the first of a series - the Tory leader says that 'You can't be Britain's Prime Minister if you don't understand China'.  Watch it here.

10.30pm: The Daily Mail's interview with DC/GO is now online.

The key message of that interview (against ConservativeHome's view) is that Osborne will remain Shadow Chancellor; Cameron: "Everyone knows the huge recovery of Conservative competence over the economy has taken place while he has been doing the job. I'm not encouraging him to read up on anything else."

Comments

[Alan S]

Osborne is vastly overrated.

Some key facts :-

He has signed us up to three years of massive Labour spending pledges.

There was no genius in his inheritance tax announcement. Nearly every visitor to this website had been arguing for such tax cuts for two years.

On Northern Rock he has been outplayed by Vince Cable.

He looks like a boy. If the economy goes bad many won't trust a boy with their wellbeing.

[Anon]

I agree, Alan. Ossie really isn't up to the job and would be as catastrophic as dear old Gordon!

[Jeffrey Randall]

Er, those tax "cuts" are to be funded by tax increases... that is the Tory policy.

[Simon W]

I’m very reluctant to draw parallels with the Labour Party in the 1990s and the Conservative Party today. I don’t see any advantage of conforming to a New Labour model of party-leadership simply because it was the Labour Party who turned itself round (in electoral terms) in the face of a failing and weakened government.

Whilst there are similarities with the Labour Party, it is simply not the case that Cameron struck a deal with Osborne.

Yes, I’m sure they discussed leadership issues (surprise, surprise this is politics after all), but to suggest that there was a deal simply because Blair and Brown struck a deal is a redundant argument.

There are no signs to suggest an agreement between the two, and there are no signs to suggest disagreement between the two.

Therefore lets not focus on the politics of the relationship between Cameron and Osborne, but rather; how they are part of a better team who can run the country.

[Moral minority]

Yes Jeffrey, tax cuts are more use to me when I am alive. But for Gideon Osborne, who will inherit tens or hundreds of millions, IHT tax cuts are more valuable. Cuts income and capital gains taxes would benefit entrepreneurs rather than trustafarian politicos like Dave and Gideon.

[Roy Meadow]

The chances of other tax increases being needed elsewhere to off-set cuts elsewhere are about 1 in 2000.

[Malcolm Dunn]

I think the most important thing to be drawn from this interview assuming it's not all spin is that these two men actually seem to like each other and work well together. After all the problems with Thatcher/Lawson and Blair/Brown that's quite important I think.
It's true that Osborne had very little of value to say about Northern Rock but with the vast increases required for the prison service, border security and the armed forces it would it is probably right as well as politically sensible to commit to the current spending plans. That does not stop Osborne from demanding efficeincy savings or cutting programmes he feels are of less value.

[James Maskell]

A Granita-style deal between them wouldnt suprize me in the least. Theyve copied everything else from New Labours playbook.

Oasbornes attempt to pull himself away from the project to which he had been a key architect is sad and pathetic...

[James Maskell]

A Granita-style deal between them wouldnt suprize me in the least. Theyve copied everything else from New Labours playbook.

Oasbornes attempt to pull himself away from the project to which he had been a key architect is sad and pathetic...

[Robert Winterton]

Malcolm, wake up- we need to spend correctly, and be don't be bashful about it - we have wasted billions on most government departments and spend more than Germany as % of GDP now. We have become in a generation a nation of hand-out junkies, which has not been good for our society in any way, particularly our less well-off who who become entombed in the 'dependency' culture.

[chinese takeaway]

"We have become in a generation a nation of hand-out junkies, which has not been good for our society in any way, particularly our less well-off who who become entombed in the 'dependency' culture"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the truly poisonous legacy of the Maggie era.