OSBORNE: MAY IS NOW DEAD WOMAN WALKING
Tories enraged by his savage attack on PM who sacked him
GEORGE Osborne was yesterday branded disloyal, unprofessional and self- indulgent after he labelled Theresa May a ‘dead woman walking’ in a savage personal attack.
As the PM reeled from losing her Commons majority, the former chancellor repeatedly plunged the knife into her political career as he said her days in downing Street were clearly numbered.
Continuing to exact his revenge on the woman who sacked him last July, a beaming Mr Osborne said a leadership challenge was now inevitable and could happen next week.
Mr Osborne, who is now editor of the London Evening Standard, said: ‘Theresa May is a dead woman walking. It is just how long she is going to remain on death row.’
He also revealed Mrs May’s words to him when he was sacked last year, saying: ‘She said I needed to get to know my party better.’
But he was slapped down by his former colleague dominic Raab, a backbench Tory MP, who said his comments would only increase support for the PM. He told the BBC’s Sunday Politics show: ‘Most MPs when they listen to that will think him disloyal, unprofes- sional and frankly pretty self-indulgent. In reality I think that will shore up support amongst a lot of MPs for Theresa May.’
And defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon added: ‘George is enjoying his job as a commentator rather than a player on the pitch.’
Mr Osborne, who relentlessly laid into the PM throughout the campaign, accused her of taking the Tories ‘ backwards’ on the gains made by himself and david Cameron.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, he said: ‘I’m someone who spent years getting the Conservative Party back into office, winning in seats like Bath, like in Brighton, like in Oxford West, and I am angry like many Conservatives are that we have gone backwards, that we are undoing the good work of the last ten years.’
He also warned a deal with democratic Unionist Party would force Mrs May to abandon a ‘hard Brexit’ to survive because it wanted to maintain economic ties with Ireland.
Some allies of the PM have tried to shift the blame on to campaign guru Sir Lynton Crosby for blunders in the lead-up to the election.
But in a further dig, Mr Osborne said yesterday that Mrs May was the one in charge. He said: ‘I worked with Lynton Crosby during the 2015 election, a very successful campaign, with Lynton Crosby and Mark Textor [his pollster]. They are professionals. The idea that they are responsible for Mrs May’s failure to communicate or the disaster of the manifesto strikes me as trying to blame other people for your own mistakes.’
He also ripped into the PM for failing to apologise to those Tory MPs who lost their seats when she made her downing Street statement after the election.
‘The Tory party, and I was watching it, was absolutely furious that there was no acknowledgement of the loss and suffering that had been caused,’ he said.
He praised the performance of Scottish Conservative leader Ruth davidson, calling her the ‘heroine’ of the party, and said: ‘If she had not won seats in Scotland ... Jeremy Corbyn would in downing Street.’
‘Unprofessional and self-indulgent’