Cameron rebukes old ally Osborne over praise for Labour's Reeves

They were once a political double act at the top of government. But even the tightest of duos can fall out when their heyday is over.

David Cameron has – playfully – taken aim at his former chancellor George Osborne over the latter’s praise for Labour finance chief Rachel Reeves.

Last month Mr Osborne, who is now a businessman and postcaster, praised her fiscal conservatism and suggested she was the ‘heir to Cameron/Osborne’.

This caused a bit of a stir, as Lord Cameron is the Foreign Secretary in a Conservative Government trailing Labour badly in the polls.

And it has earned Mr Osborne a gentle rebuke from his friend and former boss. Speaking to ITV on a tour of Asian states Lord Cameron was asked about the analogy.

‘George Osborne, since he’s been doing this blog (sic) has been nothing but trouble to me, I can tell you,’ the minister replied.

‘I think the heir to me as leader of the Conservative Party is Rishi Sunak, and he’s doing an excellent job.’

Writing in the Spectator last month Mr Osborne (right, with Cameron in 2015), who is now a businessman and postcaster, praised her fiscal conservatism and suggested she was the ‘heir to Cameron/Osborne’.

Speaking to ITV on a tour of Asian states Lord Cameron was asked about the analogy. ‘ George Osborne , since he’s been doing this blog (sic) has been nothing but trouble to me, I can tell you,’ the minister replied.

Writing in the Spectator in March, Mr Osborne said: ‘Reeves is saying she wants to strengthen the Office for Budget Responsibility I introduced, adopt austere fiscal rules and won’t put up corporation tax. Is she the heir to Cameron/Osborne? Or have I just lost a listener?’

Writing in the Spectator in March, Mr Osborne said: ‘Once, at a private dinner at the 2005 Tory conference hosted by the Daily Telegraph, I suggested that my fellow diner David Cameron was the ”heir to Blair”.

‘The Tory refuseniks were appalled. But moving on from lost battles is the key to future success.

‘We accepted parts of the Blair inheritance – social liberalism, the minimum wage and so on, just as Blair had before him accepted the Thatcher inheritance of union laws and the market economy.

‘Now Reeves is saying she wants to strengthen the Office for Budget Responsibility I introduced, adopt austere fiscal rules and won’t put up corporation tax. Is she the heir to Cameron/Osborne? Or have I just lost a listener?’

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