In normal times George Osborne’s recent troubles and loss of form might just be inconvenient for the Tory leadership. That it has coincided with their sternest economic challenge yet has made it dangerous.

The Shadow Chancellor should have been a ubiquitous presence yesterday, addressing some of the worst economic news in a generation. Instead, still recovering from the fallout of his visit to Oleg Deripaska’s yacht, he was absent from the front line, fuelling frustration among Tories that they are failing to land punches on Mr Brown when he is vulnerable.

Mr Osborne – as the chief architect of a strategy that rules out unfunded tax cuts – would have been under pressure from grassroots Tories even without the Deripaska affair.

Those closest to him report that the Shadow Chancellor has been stunned by the media storm and has felt disappointed at the lack of support.

“You can see it in the guy’s demean-our. It’s pretty obvious his confidence is shot,” a frontbench colleague said.

Both he and Mr Cameron know the bulk of the party’s MPs and activists are reluctant supporters of their modernising agenda even during good times. The storm over grammar school policy was an early warning of the limits of Conservative tolerance. It is a lesson that some believe was not fully learnt by either man. At 37, and not always as respectful of his elders as they believe they merit, Mr Osborne excites more animus among Tories than his leader. A clutch of embarrassing photographs featuring plus-twos and tailcoats has made him an easy target for abuse from those who resent his background.

Hostility to Mr Osborne was evident at the Conservative Women’s Organisation conference earlier this week and a rash of negative coverage since has added to the pressure.

Concerns over the Shadow Chancellor and his Treasury team were said yesterday to have been raised by members of the executive of the 1922 Committee. It follows reports of the less than enthusiastic reaction to Mr Cameron’s praise for his Shadow Chancellor at a dinner with the backbench “shop stewards”.

Speculation that Mr Osborne could be removed from his brief is authoritatively dismissed. “He may not have many friends, but he has friends where it counts,” one key figure said.

Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne remain the central partnership of the Conservative Party. Friends of both admit the relationship was tested by the Deripaska affair. Gossip suggests a coolness where once all was warmth.

But it was clear from their animated conversation at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions that the double-act is still functioning when it counts. Close observers in the Commons office that they share say that a chastened Mr Osborne has let it be known that “Yachtgate” has cured him of any attraction to high rollers.

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