George Osborne: Five less than flattering facts about the Chancellor

So many questions to be answered in his Autumn statement - but how much do we know about the man who holds the nation's purse strings?

Just how much are our spare bedrooms set to cost us? What’s a pint of milk going to set us back? How astronomical will it be to drown our sorrows down the local after finding out how much our spare bedrooms are going to cost and how much a pint of milk is going to set us back?

So many questions set to be answered in George Osborne’s Autumn statement – his meticulously flung together plan for the UK economy over the coming months.

Six Ways The Chancellor Is Going To Try And Trick You

But what do we really know about the man who holds our nation’s purse strings in his undoubtedly clammy hands? Here are five things you might be surprised by.

Despite being a Tory, his political idol is actually Tony Blair…

Yes, former leader of the Labour party. GQ’s Philanthropist of the Year. The recipient of Save The Children’s ‘Global Development’ award. AND, might we add, the proud owner of this incredible Christmas card. What can we say. Can’t blame the man. He did dub Blair ‘The Master’, though, when he was elected as Prime Minister in 1997. Too far, Osborne. Too far.

He banished his family’s cat to the Kent countryside because he wanted a designer dog instead…

Poor Freya found herself ousted from Downing Street to make way for the arrival George’s beloved Bichon Frise Lola recently.

“Some early issues with toilet training ... But we don't care. We love her,” he tweeted, flicking metaphorical kitty litter into her tearful eyes. Probably.

(Reuters)

He doesn’t like charities…

Because they give it away? More than likely. But they’re also “anti-business”, Osbourne recently claimed.

“You have to get out there and put the business argument, because there are plenty of pressure groups, plenty of trade unions and plenty of charities and the like, that will put the counter view,” he said at the annual convention of the Institute of Directors in London at the start of October.

He’s a “fervent Madonna fan”…

Apparently. Which explains, erm, absolutely nothing.

He allegedly played a racy “pass the ice cube” game with Geri Halliwell at a family wedding in 2009…

According to onlookers at the nuptials of his brother-in-law Toby Howell, the soon-to-be Chancellor indulged in a mouth-to-mouth frozen water game with the former Spice Girl at a “decidedly lively” wedding breakfast. Unfortunately, that one appears to have slipped the biographers.

Spice Girls - Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Geri Halliwell (Rex Features)

You’re welcome.