It’s been a while since anyone called George Osborne “the submarine” – and with good reason. The man previously known for surfacing only for set-piece events and retreating under water at the first sign of trouble, has become one of the government’s most visible faces. In the last year, he has made a series of high-profile speeches on the economy, taken the fight to Alex Salmond in Scotland, and braved the world of Twitter. The morning after the government’s defeat over Syria, it was the Chancellor who led the counter-offensive on the Today programme.
After his strikingly personal speech to the Conservative conference yesterday, in which he referenced his children and his parents (seen by many as preparing the ground for a future leadership bid), Osborne made a rare appearance on the fringe at lunchtime, speaking to Channel 4 News’s Gary Gibbon. Here are ten things we learned.
1. His mum has voted Labour and his dad used to vote Liberal but both now vote Conservative.
2. Gordon Brown is the only politician “he found it impossible to have a civil relationship with”.
3. He believes the Tories “never really” worked out how to deal with Tony Blair, “the master of the political landscape”, and “need to understand why he was appealing”.
4. He conceded of the 2012 “omnishambles” Budget: “in my job you’re not supposed to make those political miscalculations.”
5. After pledging in his speech to achieve a budget surplus by the end of the next parliament, he has not decided whether to continue to ring-fence health and international development spending.
6. Nigel Lawson’s children helped persuade him to move his family to No. 11 Downing Street.
7. He sees himself as “a social liberal, small ‘l'” and cited his strong support for equal marriage and gay rights.
8. He “does not want to run the election campaign” (Osborne is still officially the Tories’ chief election strategist), “which is why we’ve got Lynton Crosby in. I was the one who approached him.”
9. While refusing to comment on his reported leadership ambitions (“I’m not going to fall for that”), he believes that as Chancellor he has “an obligation to get out and about”.
10. Michael Gove joked (brilliantly) of his new hairstyle: “you’ve applied your economic policy to your hair. You’ve turned it around to stop the recession.”
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