Osborne on Deripaska

George Osborne’s performance at a press conference just now was typically confident. He even ended with a flourish: ‘the journalists say follow the money, but in this case there is no money to follow.’ Osborne stuck to a denial of the specific charge that he had solicited a donation, repeatedly stressing that he ‘neither asked for, nor received, money.’ The frustrated press pack kept asking whether Osborne has discussed a donation with the oligarch at all, but the Shadow Chancellow repeatedly batted that away, which will not play well in the media.

Osborne said that he went on board Mr. Deripaska’s yacht twice, once with Mandelson and once with Feldman. But perhaps the most significant piece of news came from James Landale when he reported that the Tories are floating that it was Nate Rothschild who suggested that the money could be sent through a third party.