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George Osborne

Gideon George Oliver Osborne (born 23 May, 1971 in London) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001. He is currently Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Early life

The eldest son and heir of Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet (and co-founder of the fabric and wallpapers designers, Osborne & Little), Osborne was educated at Norland Place, St Paul's School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he received an upper second class degree in Modern History. He was also editor of the University magazine Isis. He is married to The Hon. Frances Howell, now Frances Osborne, an author (and elder daughter of former Conservative Cabinet Minister David Howell, Baron Howell of Guildford). The couple have two young children, Luke and Liberty.

Originally named Gideon, he changed his name to George when he was 13. In an interview in July 2005, Osborne said: "It was my small act of rebellion. I never liked it. When I finally told my mother she said, 'Nor do I'. So I decided to be George after my grandfather, who was a war hero. Life was easier as a George; it was a straightforward name.

Osborne's first job was as a data enterer for the National Health Service, inputting the names of people who had died in London onto a computer. He also briefly worked for Selfridges. He originally intended to pursue a career as a journalist, but, after missing out on a position at a national newspaper, was informed of a vacant job at the Conservative Central Office.

He joined the Conservative Research Department in 1994 and became Head of the Political Section. Between 1995 and 1997 he was a Special Advisor at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for minister Douglas Hogg (during the BSE crisis) and worked in the Political Office at 10 Downing Street. Between 1997 and 2001 he worked for then Conservative leader William Hague as a speech writer and Political Secretary. In this role he helped prepare Hague for the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions, often playing the role of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Under the leaderships of Michael Howard and now under David Cameron, he has remained on the Prime Minister's Questions team.

Member of Parliament

Elected as the Member of Parliament for Tatton, Cheshire, in June 2001, he succeeded the Independent MP Martin Bell, who had famously won it from the controversial former Conservative minister Neil Hamilton at the 1997 election. Osborne won with a majority of 8,611, becoming (at that time) the youngest Conservative MP in the House of Commons. At the 2005 election, he was re-elected with an increased majority of 11,731, 51.8% of the vote.

Shadow Cabinet

In September 2004, Osborne was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Following the 2005 General Election, he was promoted to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer at the young age of 33 by the then-Conservative Party leader Michael Howard. His appointment to such a senior shadow cabinet post at such a young age surprised many. Howard had in fact initially offered the post to William Hague, who turned it down. Press reports suggest that Howard's second choice for the post was in fact David Cameron, who also rejected the job as he preferred to take on a major public service portfolio (he was made Shadow Education Secretary). Thus Howard turned to Osborne as his third choice for the role. Cameron successfully ran for the leadership of the party later that year, with Osborne serving as his campaign manager, and Osborne kept the Shadow Chancellor's post when Cameron became leader.

Osborne has in the past been touted as a possible future leader of the Conservative Party. His close friendship with David Cameron has led to comparisons with the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in the Labour Party in the mid-1990s. Responding to this comparison at the LSE in February 2006, Osborne said that there had been "no deal" between him and Cameron, and he has repeatedly denied ambitions beyond the Chancellorship..

Osborne has expressed an interest in the ideas of "tax simplification" (including the idea of flat tax). He set up a "Tax Reform Commission" in October 2005 to investigate ideas for how to create a 'flatter, simpler' tax system.

In June 2006 and 2007 Osborne attended the annual Bilderberg Conference.

Policy standpoint

Coming into the 2007 party conference season, the Conservative Party was trailing the Labour party in the polls by a substantial margin, of between 7 and 10 percentage points, depending on the polling organisation. Speculation was rife that Gordon Brown, the Labour Prime Minister was to call a snap election immediately after the conference season: several factors had fueled this speculation in the media, including the bringing forward of the Chancellor's budget statement in the Commons. It is widely held that the bounce in the polls that the Conservatives enjoyed in the immediate aftermath of their conference was due to two factors: the strength of David Cameron's conference closing speech and the specific economic and tax policies announced by George Osborne in his Shadow Chancellor's address

- in particular tax policies on inheritance tax and stamp duty. Many explanations have been given (including by Gordon Brown himself

) as to why a snap election was not called, but a key factor is believed to be changes in the polls following the Conservative Party conference.

Controversy

Cocaine allegations

In October 2005, Jennifer Shackleton, known to Osborne as Nathalie, produced a photograph of them at her flat in 1993 and claimed that they had taken cocaine together. In the photograph, published by the Sunday Mirror, the table in front of the pair holds rolled up papers and what appears to be a line of white powder, evidence of recent drug use according to Shackleton. Osborne denied the claims. Labour MP Dennis Skinner was excluded from the House of Commons for claiming Osborne had taken cocaine (coining the much used 'Boy George' nickname in the process). Osborne was running David Cameron's bid to become party leader when the allegations surfaced. During that campaign Cameron was also accused of having taken cocaine. Shackleton was quoted as saying, "Osborne and Cameron have been trying to brush their pasts under the carpet, saying whatever they did in the past is not relevant. But I think it's important they tell the truth." Osborne retorted that '"the allegations are completely untrue and dredging up a photo from when I was 22 years old is pretty desperate stuff. This is merely part of a smear campaign to divert attention from the issues that matter in this leadership contest and I am confident people will not be distracted by this rubbish.

Attacks on Gordon Brown

Osborne has criticised Brown aggressively throughout his tenure as Shadow Chancellor.

During Osborne's response to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's Pre-Budget Report on 5 December 2005 (in which Brown announced the revision of his estimate for UK growth in 2005 to from 3.50% to 1.75%), Osborne attacked Brown as "a Chancellor past his sell by date, a Chancellor holding Britain back". In an interview the same week, he also referred to Brown as 'brutal' and 'unpleasant'.

Osborne found himself rebuked by the Speaker of the House of Commons on 26 October 2006 when he attacked the Chancellor at Oral Questions to the Chancellor by citing a comment attributed to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton, describing the Chancellor as likely to make an 'effing awful' Prime Minister.

It was widely suggested that Osborne was leading an assault on Brown which will allow them to discredit him without damaging David Cameron's softer public image. A frequent target for Osborne had been the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls when he was the Treasury's Economic Secretary between 1997-2004. Osborne has made a point of singling him out for his poor media skills.

"Autism" comments

During the October 2006 Conservative Party Conference Osborne was asked by a journalist at a fringe meeting if he was "faintly autistic", after recalling his propensity for remembering odd facts. Osborne responded by joking "we're not getting on to Gordon Brown yet." This comment drew controversy and was immediately attacked by the National Autistic Society, a director of which stated that "any pejorative use of terms relating to autism can cause deep distress and hurt to people affected by the condition". A spokesman for Brown demanded an apology from Osborne for the comment, which has not been forthcoming. In response Osborne stated he did not intend to insult people suffering from autism, though he did add, "do I think that Chancellor Gordon Brown needs better relations with his colleagues, let alone with the opposition front bench? Most certainly." In the same meeting Osborne also said of Brown "He's the only man, apart from close members of my family, who has hung up the phone on me." This event occurred when Osborne refused to pair with Brown when he as Chancellor had to be abroad during a 90-day vote.

Channel 4 and FactCheck

Osborne has been criticised very heavily by the popular Channel 4 News 'FactCheck' item. FactCheck gives a rating from one to five for political claims where "the lower end of the scale indicates that the claim in question largely checks out, while the upper end suggests misrepresentation, exaggeration and a massaging of statistics and/or language. In the unlikely event that we award a 5 out of 5, our FactCheckers have concluded that the claim under examination has absolutely no basis in fact."

For example, Osborne's critique of Gordon Brown's pensions tax was described as is "an absurd exaggeration" (receiving a rating of 4 out of 5)

Osborne's claims about tax rises have also been given a 4 out of 5 rating, and criticised for not having "very much to do with the actual facts of the case. Nor does it make much of a useful commentary on what is actually happening in the economy."

Moreover, Channel 4 was also responsible for publishing e-mails leaked from Osborne's office.

Bullingdon Club

It was revealed in the Daily Mail on 7 April 2007 that whilst at Oxford, George Osborne had been a member of the Bullingdon Club, a notorious Oxford University dining club

This had become a significant political issue after it was revealed that David Cameron had been a member of the club and that it was 'infamous for "trashing" restaurants and other riotous behaviour' and 'is open only to sons of aristocratic families and the super-rich'. The Conservative Party have sought to distance themselves from the antics of the Bullingdon Club's members, particularly because it included many Conservative MPs and various photos in circulation are considered extremely damaging to the new party image.

White House visit

Osborne visited the White House on 25 April 2007 as part of Malaria Awareness Day. The Times wrote that "George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, will meet President Bush in the White House today in a significant boost to the Conservatives’ international credibility and a thawing in their frosty relations with Washington" and that "Mr Bush wants to talk to Mr Osborne about the Conservatives’ recent announcement that they would pledge £500 million a year to help to wipe out malaria, matching a spending promise made by Washington".

However, it transpired that Osborne was one of 150 guests. No meeting was scheduled between Osborne and Bush.

The following day, the Times print edition reported that the White House had been active in quashing any claims that Osborne had met Bush. The Conservatives countered that they had never claimed there would be any such meeting, but this claim was ridiculed by the Daily Telegraph's Washington correspondent.