As well as dealing with the Vickers report, he may well be now closeted with his advisers working out what to say about a repeated claim that he took cocaine when he was in his early 20s.
The allegation has come from Natalie Rowe, a former prostitute and dominatrix, who used to go out with one of Osborne's friends in the early 1990s. Six years ago a photograph was published in the Sunday Mirror and the News of the World showing Osborne with his arm around Rowe and what was alleged to be a line of cocaine on the table in front of them.
Rowe claimed that she had taken cocaine with the future chancellor. He issued a statement describing the allegations as "completely untrue" and part of a smear campaign intended to damage the David Cameron campaign (which Osborne was running) in the Tory leadership contest. Rowe did not produce any evidence (beyond the photograph, which did not prove anything) to substantiate the claim, the papers did not pursue the issue aggressively and eventually it was forgotten.
The story has re-emerged because Rowe has given an interview to the Australian broadcaster ABC News, which has been pursuing the story because it might explain help to explain why Osborne played such a big role in persuading Cameron to offer Coulson a job in 2007, after his resignation as News of the World editor. ABC News has published some extracts from the interview on its website. Rowe repeats her claim that Osborne did take cocaine on the night that the key photograph was taken. ABC News also says Rowe has been told by the police that her phone was hacked by the News of the World.
