Following chancellor's divisive comments over Philpott case, he appeared nervous in front of Morrisons staff
The week started on a slightly bumpy note for George Osborne but ended, in his eyes at least, in a strong place.
As he walked up to a podium in the heart of the main Morrisons distribution centre for the south of England in Sittingbourne, Kent, on Tuesday, the chancellor looked uncharacteristically nervous in front of an unfamiliar audience.
Osborne struggled to connect personally with the workers, who were kitted out in high visibility vests in the freezing distribution centre, as he made his pitch in front of row upon row of supermarket goods from chocolate Hobnobs to Carlsberg beer packed floor to ceiling.
But his message – that Morrisons workers on £20,000 would understand the need to crack down on welfare – did appear to hit home as some of the staff questioned him about benefits.
The visit marked the carefully planned part of the week, as Osborne stepped out of the comfort of London thinktanks and City boardrooms to explain why a household benefit cap of £26,000 will be appealing to workers earning a similar sum.
Then, two days later on Thursday, came the unplanned part of the week when Osborne interrupted a visit to Derby to say that the conviction of Mick Philpott for the manslaughter of six children in the same town had highlighted the need to reform the welfare state. The reaction was swift. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, accused Osborne of demeaning his office by linking Philpott's "vile crimes" to a wider debate about controversial welfare changes.
Downing Street made clear on Friday that Osborne was in the right place when David Cameron whole-heartedly backed the chancellor during a visit to his Witney constituency.
The speech at Morrisons and the rapid use of the Philpott case appeared to bear all the hallmarks of Lynton Crosby, the hard-headed Australian brought in by Downing Street to run the Tories' 2015 general election campaign. But party sources made clear that the interventions by Osborne are part of a strategy launched long before Crosby was summoned . The chancellor believes welfare changes are wholly justified in the new austere economic climate and Labour is placing itself wrongly by opposing so many of the changes.
The Philpott case has the potential to serve as a significant moment in the run-up to the next election which will highlight what Gordon Brown used to call "dividing lines" between the two main parties. As a keen student of the Brown approach to politics, Osborne knows that the key to the "dividing line" is to define your opponents in an unfavourable light and then ram home that message until polling day.
The Tories believe Labour has stepped into a trap on welfare by opposing many of the changes while opinion polls show strong public support for the cap and other changes such as limiting the uprating of benefits to 1%.
Charlie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover who is a leadership loyalist, says Osborne has learned a classic lesson. "You have all the bien pensant quangocrats and leftwing establishment all throwing rocks," Elphicke said. "The more George Osborne attacks that establishment and appears anti-establishment and in favour of social change that people want, the more the row helps him. I think it was Cicero who said 2,000 years ago if you want to change something in politics have a row."
He added: "There is a choice. The Labour party is about sustaining or increasing welfare, they are about sustaining or increasing taxes. They have nothing to say to hard working families except more welfare which does not help them. And they have nothing to say to the country other than let's borrow more to borrow less which everyone thinks is mad.
"We say that is one choice and that takes you the way of Greece, Cyprus and Club Med. On the other hand we are trying to get on top of the welfare bills."
Elphicke highlighted Osborne's attempt to steal the language of Tony Blair who pledged in Labour's 1997 general election manifesto to cut the bills of social failure. "We are in the tradition of saying these are the bills of social failure and what we are doing is what Tony Blair said he would do and never did," Elphicke said.
Labour insists it is on strong ground and that its position is being distorted by the Tories. "This week we have seen a nasty, cynical divisive form of politics," one Labour source said. "The Tories are seeking to pick out one group from society and blame them for all the ills of one family. They are doing this because their welfare reforms are heartless and they are hopeless. The coalition's welfare reforms penalise working families while taxes are cut for millionaires."
The source said it was wholly misleading to claim that Labour simply wants to subsidise an ever expanding welfare state. The party has set out plans to make work pay by introducing a new 10p tax rate to be funded by a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2m. It also emphasises rights and responsibilities by saying that young people stand to lose their benefits after twelve months, rising to two years for those aged over 25, if they fail to take employment in the Jobs Guarantee scheme.
"The remarks by Osborne are the latest and most cynical attempt by this government to cover up its failings," the source said. "It shows that the Tories cannot govern in the national interest. To seek to make political capital out of these deaths really does mark a new low."
The chancellor will dismiss the Labour criticisms as the usual cut and thrust of politics. But his nervous appearance before the Morrisons workers appeared to show that he knows the tax and benefit changes the government is pushing through put him in a strong, but not a perfect, position.
This was highlighted when he was unable to relate one change to the workers in front of him – the cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p.
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