George Osborne’s latest advice: ‘The bath is a good place to put a hamster as they can't get out at the sides’

The Chancellor attempts to impress a group of young people with his wit and wisdom

Chancellor George Osborne came close to approving a dramatic move to combine income tax and national insurance in this year's Budget (PA)

George Osborne has some sage advice to enlighten the world with.

If you have a hamster on the run, put them in the bath.

“The bath is a good place to put a hamster as they can't get out at the sides,” he told a panel of children interviewing him for First News, on behalf of the channel’s weekly newspaper for young people.

The Chancellor was discussing his pet hamster who understandably made a recent bid for freedom.

“The other day the hamster disappeared from the cage,” he said. “It broke out of the cage and completely disappeared.

”Me and my family were terrified this hamster was going to start appearing in press conferences with the Prime Minister, or maybe when Barack Obama visits suddenly the hamster would run across the room.

“So we spent about two weeks searching for this hamster, and then finally our cat Freya found the hamster.”

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how much that hamster wanted its time with Osborne to end) Freya the cat didn’t eat the family pet.

”The cat was meowing at an electricity box, which is also a dangerous place for the hamster to be,” he continued with the tone of someone talking to a baby.

“Someone opened the box and there was our hamster, and now safely back at the top of Downing Street, back in her cage.

“She occasionally gets out and plays in the bath - the empty bath. The bath is a good place to put a hamster as they can't get out at the sides.”

And there we have it; these are the wise words the Chancellor offered Britain’s young generation.

The group of children asked Osborne various questions, from how much is his salary (£134,000) to how good he is at Maths and “What’s 7x8?”

Using all of his political question-dodging capabilities, he responded:

“Look I'm not going to get into a whole string of... I've made it a rule in life not to answer a whole load of maths questions.”

Another child asked about his favourite rappers, prompting another entertaining answer:

“I’m going to use your judgement,” he stumbled, initially.

“Pharrell Williams,” he answered, pronouncing it ‘feral’. The panel were kind enough not to tell him that Williams is not a rapper. “I love his songs, they’re kind of uplifting and you know…”

Profound musings indeed from the man in control of the country’ economic and financial affairs.