Who’s who in Team Osborne?

The chattering classes of Westminster have long kept their eyes on Team Osborne.

Some believe there is a distinct possibility that the chancellor (who did not stand against David Cameron in the Tory leadership contest of 2005) could move next door to Number 10 in the future.

For him to manage that, however, he first has to handle a few small issues in his role as chancellor – not least curing the ailing patient that is the UK economy. And to do that, he will have to rely on the team behind him in the Treasury as well as his own wits.

George Osborne’s background is glittering. He is heir-apparent to an old Anglo-Irish baronetcy and attended the prestigious St Paul’s School in London before studying at Oxford University.

Some of his team share his establishment background: the Chief of Staff to the Treasury Rupert Harrison made the apparently seamless transition from Eton’s playing fields to the dreaming spires of Magdalen College Oxford, co-incidentally Mr Osborne’s alma mater.

Harrison’s colleague, Commerical Secretary to the Treasury Lord Sassoon, also made the same journey.

In October 2009 the Daily Telegraph ranked Rupert Harrison 39th in a list of the 100 most influential right-wingers in the UK.

Spad-u-like

Also in Mr Osborne’s team is the chief secretary to the treasury, Lib Dem Danny Alexander. Mr Alexander replaced the first choice for the role, David Laws, who was forced to resign over expenses irregularities.

Mr Alexander, another Oxford alumnus, recently warned his boss over plans to scrap the 50p tax band. Relations between the two men are nonetheless said to be good.

As well as the prominent politicians in his team, behind the scenes Mr Osborne has some high-flying special advisers, or “spads”.

Some of the best-known British politicians over the past decade (such as PM David Cameron and Ed Miliband,) were special advisers before they became MPs. We may see some junior members of George Osborne’s team sitting on the green benches of the House of Commons at some time in the future.

Currently Mr Osborne has two spads: one is former management consultant (and Oxford graduate) Ellie Shawcross, who at 27 is the youngest member of Mr Osborne’s team.

The other is Ramesh Chhabra, alumnus of Hull University, who stood as a Conservative candidate in the 2002 Hull Council elections – he came last of seven candidates.

Comprehensive team

David Gauke, who is MP for Hertfordshire South West and exchequer secretary to the treasury, attended St Edmund Hall Oxford, having started his academic career at a state comprehensive in Ipswich.

His fellow East Anglian and state school colleague Chloe Smith is economic secretary to the treasury.

And another comprehensive school old boy is Mark Hoban, financial secretary to the treasury. A graduate of the London School of Economics, Mr Hoban is also a native of an area that is not a traditional Tory heartland – County Durham in the north east of England.

Among the chancellor’s supporters in the Westminster village are Education Secretary Michael Gove and the newly minted Transport Secretary Justine Greening.

However, Mr Osborne is not universally loved. He is said to have a “strained” relationship with David Cameron’s director of strategy, Steve Hilton, and it is known there is no brotherly love between the chancellor and his ebullient former Bullingdon Club comrade-in-arms (and, according to some, potential Conservative party leader), London Mayor Boris Johnson.