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George Osborne’s freezer lesson

With Jeremy Corbyn too anti-establishment to speak to the Parliamentary Press Gallery over lunch, George Osborne was hauled before lobby hacks today as the alternative opposition. The former Chancellor didn’t disappoint with his address.

The former Conservative politician – and now Evening Standard editor – accused the Tories of ignoring the 48pc Remain voters in the country, said Labour would be 20 points ahead of the Tories if they had a competent leader rather than Jeremy Corbyn and hinted at a comeback to politics – saying ‘never say never’.

As for his old foe Theresa May, Osborne said that he didn’t think May would have the numbers for a ‘hard Brexit – and warned it was only a matter of time until she was ousted as Prime Minister:

‘The essential question is going to be is there going to be a change of leader in this Parliament? The Conservative Parliamentary Party assumes there will be, the Prime Minster has said nothing about that. And at some point that is going to come to a head.’

Asked whether he regretted allegedly saying he wouldn’t rest until May was ‘chopped up in bags in my freezer’, Osborne could not be described as the picture of remorse; ‘It taught me a thing or two about editorial conference’.

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