GEORGE Osborne is expected to remain Chancellor if the Tories win the General Election so that he can steer the UK through another referendum but this time on the Yes side.
Whitehall sources have indicated that the Treasury's key role in the UK Government's campaign to stop Scottish independence has helped persuade Mr Osborne to remain as Chancellor to lead the department in key negotiations with Brussels to help David Cameron secure the reforms he is seeking and then, if successful, campaign for the UK to remain in the EU in an in-out referendum before the end of 2017.
"The EU negotiations are all Treasury-related so it makes sense for George to run them," one senior source stressed.
Before William Hague's unexpected departure from the Foreign Office, it had been widely expected that, if the Tories regained power this year, then Mr Osborne would become Foreign Secretary. But as Mr Hague moved to become Commons Leader, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, was promoted to fill his role at the Foreign Office.
However, Mr Osborne playing the pivotal role in any EU negotiations would put Mr Hammond's nose out of joint and could cause a major rift, particularly as the Secretary of State is seen as more eurosceptic than the Chancellor.
Last October, Mr Hammond raised eyebrows when he told MPs the Tory proposal of reform talks and then a referendum was "lighting a fire under the European Union".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article