George Osborne is planning to assign one of his own Treasury team a specific role in Brussels if the Conservatives win the general election next year.
The Shadow Chancellor’s keenness to ensure the formal role provides the latest hint at how the Treasury would be restructured under a Tory government.
While Tory aides insist that they were not even thinking about appointments with an election still to fight, The Times understands that Mark Hoban, the Shadow Treasury Minister, would be a strong contender for the role.
It would involve responsibility for Brussels-related issues, such as the new European regulation affecting the City.
While it is understood that Mr Osborne has made no formal promises to his team, he is determined that under a Conservative government the Treasury would appoint a senior representative for Brussels affairs. Some bankers and hedge funds had expressed deep frustration that the Treasury failed to help them to fight off the threat of onerous regulation from Brussels governing leverage, capital requirements and disclosure.
Advertisement
Lord Myners, the City Minister, and Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, have since taken on the plight of private equity and hedge funds. Lord Mandelson, who until last year was the European Trade Commissioner, made clear that the Government would fight to concede very little to Brussels.
There is deep anxiety among some in the financial community about who would take on their case, with genuine clout in Europe, should Labour lose the next election.
Should the Conservatives win the election, Mr Osborne would reduce the Treasury’s dominant policy-making role that Gordon Brown established when he was Chancellor. He would force the department to return to auditing the size and terms of government contracts.
It is also believed that Philip Hammond, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, would enjoy wider powers.
It is understood that one of a Conservative Treasury’s first projects would be to seize confidential business contracts between the private sector and the Government and determine whether they were value for money. It is believed that they would also examine detail governing the relationship between Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Citigroup, whose financiers are formal advisers to the Treasury.
Advertisement
A key team of six would run a Conservative Treasury: Mr Osborne, Mr Hoban, Mr Hammond, the MPs David Gauke and Greg Hands and the adviser Sir James Sassoon.