Our latest Cabinet league table is above. And, after months and months and months of either IDS or Gove, there’s a new name at the top: George Osborne. The Chancellor also scores even higher ratings than Boris, which is scarcely ever achieved by any Cabinet minister.
In some ways, this isn’t too surprising. Osborne’s numbers have been rising – at a record-breaking pace – for some time now, and were always likely to do so with an improving economy. His latest Budget was also a well-received document, certainly when compared to the catalogue of screw-ups he presented in 2012.
But there is still something pretty astonishing about the Chancellor’s ascent. Here’s an updated version of the graph I produced a couple of months ago:
And it’s not as though Osborne is flattered by those around him. Everyone in the top six, from the Chancellor down to David Cameron, has improved on their tallies from last month. Although there’s no such joy for Grant Shapps, our biggest faller this month, who has shed 17.8 percentage points – probably a response, perhaps an unfair one, to that unfortunate beer ‘n’ bingo tweet.
Does Osborne’s rise translate across to our leadership polling? Yes and no. We shall have more on that, on ConHome, shortly.