Guido hears a rumour that local free-sheet editor George Osborne is toying with the idea of hiring a “Europe Editor” to oversee the Standard’s anti-Brexit coverage. The one worry he has is of upsetting long-serving political editor Joe Murphy, who is basically a solid news hack of the old school and might not be thrilled at having his turf invaded by some Euro-commissar taking dictation from Nicky Morgan and Peter Mandelson. Osborne is understood to be prepared to ‘wave Evgeny’s cheque book around’ to get a big name. It occurs to Guido that Nick Clegg is currently unemployed. Just a thought…

Their embargoed look at the budget has leaked before the Chancellor even stands up:

• Planned fuel duty hike scrapped
• 1p off a pint but cider up 2p, wine up 10p and spirits up 38p.
• Borrowing up to £61bn
• Income tax allowance will rise to £10,000 by April 2014
• Corporation tax cut to 20% by 2015
• Growth will apparently reach 1.8% next year, 2.3% by 2015. No Triple Dip.
• £2,000 cut to employer NI contributions.

Terrible economic news but cheaper beer.

UPDATE:

I wish to apologise for a very serious mistake by the @EveningStandard earlier which resulted in our front page being tweeted. 1/2…

— Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) March 20, 2013

… 2/2 We are so sorry to the House of Commons, to the Speaker and to the Chancellor for what happened. We shall be apologosing to them

— Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) March 20, 2013

UPDATE II:  Editor Sarah Sands has released this statement:

“An investigation is immediately underway into how this front page was made public and the individual who Tweeted the page has been suspended while this takes place. We have immediately reviewed our procedures. We are devastated that an embargo was breached and offer our heartfelt apologies.”