George Osborne is now Paul Dacre’s favourite politician, judging by the glowing 14 pages the Daily Mail devoted to the chancellor’s budget – all the way from depicting the chancellor as a Sun god to complement the splash’s “Sun shines on Savers” headline, to Max Hastings calling him the “biggest man in politics” (the paper’s highest possible praise) in a leader page column. What this hero-worshipping treatment also reflects is the sunset of Michael Gove’s time as Dacre’s favourite, his relegation to chief whip having put an end to the amour fou between him and the editor-in-chief. All the Osborne puffery will hence not have made enjoyable reading for columnist Sarah Vine, who at least partly owes her well-rewarded Mail sinecure to being Mrs Gove – but will she be invited to move on if after 7 May her husband is a mere middle-ranking minister or, even worse, shadow minister? Should columns or other pieces by Frances Osborne, the chancellor’s best-selling author wife, now start to appear, Vine will no doubt get the message.
