AMBITION, LOVE – AND LISTENING TO N***AZ WITH ATTITUDE
HIS MOST REVEALING INTERVIEW YET
CHANCELLOR George Osborne has given his most revealing interview yet… in which he talks about how his son almost drowned, how he wooed his wife from under a close friend’s nose – and his own personal ambitions.
He ruled out a path to power now, saying he deserved to be sacked if he showed disloyalty to David Cameron. But he conceded that when the time comes for Cameron to leave No10, he would ‘see how it flies’.
The interview – published in The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine today, as the Tory conference begins – took place over three days with Mail on Sunday editor Geordie Greig, during the Chancellor’s tour of China.
Osborne said Britain could ‘walk tall’ and had ‘got its mojo back’ thanks to the economic revival.
His growing self-confidence has led many senior Tories to believe he has taken a decisive lead over main rivals Boris Johnson and Theresa May in the battle to be Cameron’s heir.
Dismissing talk of ‘Prime Minister in waiting,’ Osborne said if Cameron suspected him of plotting a path to No10 instead of concentrating on the economy he should fire him.
‘I never look at him and go, “I should be sitting there’s, he’s occupying my Cabinet seat, he’s stolen my birthright,”’ the Chancellor said.
‘I owe it to him to do this job to the best of my ability until the day he stops being Prime Minister. If I were for one moment to think, “I’m not going to put this in my Budget because it might hinder my chance of becoming PM” or “I’m going to avoid saying something controversial because there may be some Conservatives who don’t like it and that might damage my chances” – if I ever thought like that I should be sacked.’
He said he felt ‘nothing but pride’ in Cameron and expected to ‘stay close friends with him for the rest of my life’. Osborne also revealed: He is a fan of outrageous hiphop stars ‘N**gaz With Attitude’ – once dubbed ‘the world’s nastiest rap band’.
His horror when his three-yearold son Luke was rescued from drowning after being spotted floating ‘seemingly lifeless’ in a swimming pool 11 years ago.
How he fell in love with author wife Frances after trying to play Cupid for a friend who fancied her.
That all the couple’s bank accounts are in joint names.
How he recently threw away his old baggy jeans because he is sure he won’t be ‘fat and flabby’ again.
That his daughter Liberty, 12, banned him from going to a Taylor Swift concert with her because he is ‘uncool’.
The couple do not set bed times for their children – and they can watch 15 and 18-certificate films.
He is an ‘irregular Anglican’ but doesn’t pray because he ‘can’t imagine a God who would ever need to intercede in the daily travails of my life’.
He drove recklessly fast when he was young and nearly had two serious crashes.
The Chancellor also gave a revealing insight into his political highs and lows, Britain’s economic comeback – and the possibility of moving from No11 to No10.
He said he is a ‘smouldering hill’ compared to ‘volcanic’ ex Chancellor Gordon Brown, and admitted he had sleepless nights over his notorious 2012 ‘omnishambles’ budget.
Looking ahead, the Chancellor predicts that both Jeremy Corbyn and a second Labour leader could be ousted before the next Election in 2020.
For all his pledges of loyalty, Osborne left little doubt that when his friend and ally Cameron does stand down – expected in three or four years’ time – he will throw his hat in the ring.
‘David Cameron has just been re-elected,’ he said. ‘Jeremy Corbyn and the entire Labour movement has headed off into the wilderness. It is an historic opportunity for the Conservative Party to cement a relationship with working people.
‘There will probably be one, maybe two, Labour leadership contests between now and then. Let’s face up to it when the Tory leadership contest comes and see how it flies.’
Osborne recalled his painful uphill struggle when he took over the Treasury in 2010.
‘The country was in an economic mess and it had been a very long time since anyone as young as me had done the job. The pressure I felt was just to prove that this 38-yearold could do the job and turn things round. I wanted people to say, “Whatever you think, you may not like this guy, he had the right ideas and was doing his job.”’
At first it went badly and he would awake in the middle of the night – ‘sometimes earlier!’ he quips. Humiliatingly, he was booed at the 2012 London Olympics. ‘I got myself into a bit of a hole. I had set out an economic plan but by 2013 it wasn’t obvious it was working. I just thought I had to go out and sell it. You can’t just say “D’you know what? Take or leave it, that’s what we’re doing.”
‘The country needed to be grabbed and taken in the right direction.’
Osborne concedes he was ‘getting fat and flabby’. He went on the 5-2 diet – involving two days of fasting and five of normal eating – and lost two stone. He is so confident he won’t put it back on, he has given his old wardrobe to a charity shop. Now the economy was back on track, he had no intention of sitting on his laurels. ‘I want to turn up the tempo. When we came to power we were a country shuffling along looking at our feet. Now we can lift our eyes a bit and walk tall. Britain has got its mojo back.’
Not that all his ambitions are political. He revealed his dreams include and travelling to space – and learning to sing in tune.
He also told how he met wife Frances when he tried to fix a date between her and a single flatmate, Peter. Osborne invited her to dinner – and fell for her himself. ‘I thought, “Sod it, she’s great, I’m going to make my move.” So I said, “Sorry Pete, it’s just the way it is.”’ Asked about fam-
OSBORNE ON... his boss at No 10
‘I never think, he’s stolen my birthright. I owe it to him to do this job to the best of my ability.’
...how he snaffled wife Frances from pal ‘I thought, sod it, she’s great, I’m going to make my move. Sorry Pete, it’s the way it is.’
...plunging popularity before star rose again ‘I got myself into a bit of a hole... it wasn’t obvious my economic plan was working.’ ...near-tragedy of his son in swimming pool
‘My God, it constantly goes through your mind... what if it had been a minute later?’
ily life in the Downing Street bubble, he said: ‘I want Frances to be free to write and be someone other than George Osborne’s wife and for the children to be someone other than George Osborne’s son or daughter. I don’t want them to have sacrificed their lives to my career.’
He described the couple’s shock when son Luke was nearly drowned in a pool. ‘My brother brought him out spluttering,’ he recalls. ‘My God, it constantly goes through your mind: what if he had not seen him or had been a minute later.’
Extraordinarily, Osborne himself had a near identical brush with death at the same age when he too was dragged from a pool by an uncle.
He calls himself an ‘irregular Anglican’, but does not pray: ‘I can’t imagine a God who would ever need to intercede in the daily travails of my life.’ Osborne is ‘besotted’ with his children, but he and wife Frances do not impose strict controls on their TV viewing and computer habits.
‘I’m not one of those who thinks there is something inherently bad or inferior about watching television.’ Does that include watching a 15 or 18-rated film? ‘As they say in America, I’ll take the Fifth Amendment.’