10 THINGS PRESIDENT OBAMA DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT… GEORGE OSBORNE
IT’S easy to see how you can confuse preppy rich kid George Osborne for a black 80s soul singer, er, isn’t it?
Well, that’s exactly what Barack Obama did last week.
The US President bumped into our Chancellor of the Exchequer at the G8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, and called him ‘ Jeffrey’, confusing his name with that of On The Wings Of Love singer Jeffrey Osborne.
Famous for his 1982 hit Jeffrey, 65, grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, while George, 42, enjoyed a privileged life of private schools and afternoon tea in Paddington, central London.
So to help out our good friend and Sunday Sport subscriber Barack, we’ve put together a quick fact- sheet on our hapless George that will help Mr President next time he visits: 1His
real first name is Gideon. George is just an elaborate lie. He changed it when he was 13 because neither he, nor his mum, actually liked the name Gideon. 2 After getting a degree in History at university, he actually wanted to be a hack, not an MP, and worked as a freelance journalist. He eventually joined the Conservative Party as a researcher in 1994. 3 George has a 15 per cent stake in his family’s wallpaper and fabrics company Osborne & Little and the business is valued at a cool £ 15m. 4When
he was named Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2010 he was the second youngest person to hold the title – at 38 he was one year older than record holder Randolph Churchill. 5 Mr Osborne comes 281st in the list of sexy politicians on sexymp. com, 141 places behind current Prime Minister David Cameron. 6 He is the subject of an online parody called ‘ The Real George Osborne’ – a 14 part web series based on his numerous and disastrous PR fails. 7 In 2005 he was actually third choice to be named shadow chancellor after William Hague and David Cameron turned it down. 8 In 2008 he vehemently denied claims that he asked for a £ 50,000 donation from Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, breaking the law forbidding donations from foreigners. The Tory party turned he donation down, branding it ‘ inappropriate’. 9 During the recent expenses scandal, he was made to pay back £ 1,193 in mortgage and chauffeur fares. He had also claimed £ 47 for two copies of one of his own speeches. 10 During his youth, he was friends with a ‘ Miss Whiplash’ dominatrix called Natalie Rowe, 47, who wrote about it in her autobiography.