Osborne still won’t stop scaremongering

JUST who does George Osborne think he is? His Project Fear scare campaign – one of the most disastrous political strategies of recent times – is in ruins, its apocalyptic predictions about economic calamity exposed as lies. His Westminster career is badly damaged, after the public firmly told him where to go on June 23.

But the former chancellor hasn’t got the message. Breaking the convention that politicians don’t criticise their own country when abroad, he flies to Chicago to lecture the Prime Minister on how to conduct her Brexit negotiations.

Then, in an interview published yesterday (in the EU-loving FT, where else?) he has the gall to demand a ‘soft’ Brexit. Clearly, when he argues the PM should delay Article 50 and formal talks until late next year, Mr Osborne – like so many bitter Remainers – hopes to reverse the vote. And when he accuses Mrs May of being ‘naive’ to suggest we can get a sensible trade deal, isn’t he once again talking Britain down?

The reality is the EU needs us more than we need them. As a respected think tank showed this week, 3.6million British jobs are linked to our trade with the EU – but 5.8million EU jobs depend on their exports to us.

Yes, there will be storms ahead, but at the moment Britain’s economy is doing well, while the Eurozone’s – and even Germany’s – is in the doldrums.

And still we suffer from the EU’s mindless diktats! Today Niall Dickson, head of the General Medical Council, warns patient safety is at risk because Brussels prevents us testing the skills of doctors from the continent.

Deaf to the reasoned arguments of the GMC and blindly wedded to the principle of free movement, EU bureaucrats refuse to allow vital checks to ensure the basic competence of the 3,500 European doctors coming here every year.

As for Mr Osborne – a politician it must be said not blessed with self-awareness – he would do well to spend a period of silence analysing the mistakes he made in the referendum campaign. His treachery to the PM demeans him and the office he once held.