Did George steal wife from hedge fund boss?
Chancellor George osborne revealed his ruthless side at the weekend when he claimed to have nabbed his wife Frances from right under the nose of his old flatmate and friend.
osborne, who is quietly laying out his stall to succeed David cameron as Prime Minister before the next general election, revealed that he had originally set up Frances with his friend Pete.
only after spending more time with his future wife, now a successful author with two biographies and a novel to her name, did he decide to snap her up for himself. ‘I thought, “Sod it, she’s great and I’m going to make my move”,’ he claimed.
‘So I said, “Sorry Pete, it’s just the way it is”’.
So who is this poor, unfortunate Pete? colleagues say osborne is almost certainly referring to his old pal Peter Davies, with whom he’s been close friends with since they met at oxford University.
Davies, who heads up london-based hedge fund lansdowne Partners, is now one of the financial world’s foremost movers and shakers.
he was named 41st in this year’s Times rich list of wealthiest hedge funders with a fortune of £150 million.
clearly, Peter didn’t hold osborne’s unscrupulous behaviour against him,
since he went on to be best man at Frances and George’s wedding in 1998 at St Margaret’s Church, next to Westminster Abbey.
His friendship with the Chancellor has come under the spotlight ever since Osborne entered 11 Downing Street in 2010. Two months ago, Lansdowne was reported to have banked tens of millions of pounds from slumping share prices in the UK, after taking controversial ‘ short’ positions on FTSE 100 companies.
In 2013, it was revealed that Lansdowne secured profits of £36 million from the privatisation of Royal Mail in under six months.
A Labour source was quoted at the time as remarking: ‘By selling off the Royal Mail on the cheap the taxpayer was short-changed, while hedge funds and best friends of the Chancellor rake it in.’
A spokesman for Mr Davies declined to comment.