The post you are reporting:
Sounds like spreadsheet Phil will be drinking the hemlock very soon.
Theresa May’s relationship with Philip Hammond is close to breaking point after Downing Street took control of a last-minute Budget briefing amid fears Wednesday's financial statement will fall flat.
Number 10 ordered the Treasury to rush out an announcement on schools after alarm bells started ringing over the lacklustre build-up to the most important Budget of Mrs May’s premiership.
It came after a series of botched Budget announcements and a gaffe-strewn TV interview by Mr Hammond at the weekend.
One Cabinet source described it as “the worst Budget build-up in history”.Mr Hammond’s prospects of staying on as Chancellor now depend on him delivering a Budget that is far beyond what most of his Conservative colleagues dare to expect. One minister told The Daily Telegraph that Mr Hammond would have “no excuses” if the Budget flopped, while a former minister said his statement would have to be “spectacular” for him to have any chance of saving his job.
Philip Hammond's appearance on the Andrew Marr show made an impact because of his gaffes, rather than policies.Mrs May finally appeared to have lost patience with Mr Hammond on Tuesday after he fluffed his last chance to sell his Budget vision to the public.A preview of his Budget statement, released to the media in time for 10pm news bulletins and national newspapers, was described by Tory MPs as “uninspiring” and contained no mention of Brexit.The Treasury insisted no policy announcements would be made, but more than two hours later it performed an about-turn and announced extra money for teacher training and maths teaching following an intervention by Number 10.Mr Hammond will announce today that £177 million will be made available to promote maths skills, with schools and colleges receiving £600 for every extra student who takes Maths A-Levels.
Philip Hammond will deliver the Budget on Wednesday. A further £42m will be spent on a pilot scheme to give teachers in underperforming schools £1,000 for training. In addition, £84m will be spent trebling the number of computer science teachers. Although the announcement was welcomed, Conservative sources suggested the move smacked of panic in Downing Street, which had until then allowed the Treasury to retain control of Budget announcements. One source said: “The Treasury is just not very good at getting its message across and the past week has been no exception. They never seem to have any idea of what to announce, and when.”A serving minister said: “They've cleared the decks for him, he can have no excuses. It is his Budget, he will stand or fall by it. There will be a regeneration reshuffle, and nobody sees him featuring in it.”A former minister said: “He is not a bloke who has a huge number of allies. He will have to have a fairly spectacular Budget to save himself. If he flops again he is done.”
Mr Hammond’s last Budget, in March, backfired badly when he was forced to scrap a plan to increase National Insurance contributions following a huge public outcry. The title of the Budget will be Building a Britain Fit for the Future, and the Chancellor will express the Government’s “resolve to look forwards, to embrace change, to meet our challenges head on, and to seize the opportunities for Britain.” Mr Hammond, who has already announced £80 billion of extra investment in research and development over the next decade, will say that “for the first time in decades, Britain is genuinely at the forefront of a technological revolution, not just in our universities and research institutes, but this time in the commercial development labs of our great companies and on the factory floors and business parks across the land.