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George Osborne: I’m just a journalist

Ten years on from the financial crash and Theresa May is Prime Minister, Jeremy Corbyn is leader of the opposition and George Osborne is editor of the Evening Standard.

So, were the policies enacted by Osborne during his time in government partly to blame for this? Speaking to Andrew Neil at a Spectator event, Osborne suggested that this wasn’t the case, although he did admit that a historian looking back might see some link between the economic crash – and the response to it – and the rise of both Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn.

The economic shock to the West has thrown up many political changes, suggested Osborne. ‘But I’m just a journalist now,’ he said, before being reminded that he was also an advisor to BlackRock. So, could the next big financial risk come from asset managers, such as the one he works for? Not likely, said Osborne because ‘they are very well advised’.

And while Mr S was keen to hear from the former chancellor what his current position was towards the Prime Minister, Osborne wasn’t prepared to stick the knife in. The Evening Standard provides more than ample information to anyone who is interested, free of charge, he said. ‘I don’t want to get into picking runners and riders,’ he said, before saying how excited he was to have Ruth Davidson writing for the paper.

So what next for the former chancellor? ‘I’m a private citizen now… and a professor at Stanford university and Manchester.’ Is there anything he hasn’t done yet, in his new capacity as a private citizen? ‘I’m not yet a professor at my own university,’ he said.

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