DAVID CAMERON and George Osborne have been given the opportunity by Michael Howard to prove whether they deserve to be called the Blair and Brown of the new Tory generation.

They are as close as the Labour duo once were, with Mr Cameron acting as godfather to Mr Osborne’s daughter, and they have as much ambition.

The appointment of Mr Osborne as Shadow Chancellor fits his characterisation as the Brown of the Tory pair but the question remains, as with the Labour twosome, whether one will stand aside to help the other when it comes to the crunch.

Until yesterday, 38-year-old Mr Cameron had made the more significant progress. As the new Shadow Education Secretary he has an impeccable, but perhaps too impeccable, pedigree: he went from Eton to take a First at Oxford.

From there he went to work for Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative Research Department. He is regarded as one of the Tories’ key modernisers, part of the group of bright young things that likes to emphasise the party’s socially inclusive side, although he was not able to achieve this as general election co-ordinator.

He was groomed in the classic Tory way: blooded as Norman Lamont’s special adviser during Black Wednesday and then working for Michael Howard at the Home Office. He left politics to become the head of corporate affairs at Carlton Communications, and met his wife, a designer.

He has two children. His son, Ivan, is severely disabled with epilepsy and cerebral palsy. When he entered Parliament as MP for Witney in 2001, he sprang straight into the Shadow Cabinet, where one of his roles was as Shadow Minister for the Disabled.

He was responsible for the Tory manifesto and may have suffered from criticisms that it was too thin and slogan-based. Mr Osborne, 33, impressed successive Tory leaders with his ability to impersonate Mr Blair as they rehearsed for Question Time duels. His most recent role was as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Oliver Letwin’s understudy.

Educated at St Paul’s School, London, and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read modern history, his political baptism of fire came aged 22 as the Conservatives’ official observer at the 1994 Labour Party conference. He was impressed at the way Mr Blair laid into the unions in his first speech as leader and remains an admirer.

He entered Parliament in 2001 as the MP for Tatton — defeating the Independent Martin Bell — he supported Michael Portillo for leader in 2001. Mr Osborne, whose real first name is Gideon, is married to an author and has two children. He was responsible for the Tories’ first wobble of the election campaign when he admitted that promised tax cuts would not come in immediately but in 2006.

Both view the Blair-Brown comparison as a “curse”. Mr Osborne tells those who ask him about deals that Granita, the restaurant where Mr Blair and Mr Brown struck their pact in 1994, has closed.

SHADOW CABINET

Deputy Leader and Shadow Secretary of State for Defence MICHAEL ANCRAM

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