George Osborne: Theresa May's leadership dominates conversations among cabinet ministers

Former Chancellor says Tories must ‘confront’ the speculation around Ms May’s future

Mr Osborne was sacked by Ms May when she became PM (AFP)

The Tories must “confront” the issue of Theresa May’s leadership which is dominating conversations among her top team, George Osborne has said.

The former Chancellor turned newspaper editor said the Government faces “very serious challenges” as the weakened Prime Minister attempts to keep Brexit on track.

Ms May claimed to have the full support of her Cabinet in the wake of a difficult few days, marred by her disastrous party conference speech and an aborted plot led by former party chairman Grant Shapps.

However Mr Osborne, who was sacked by Ms May when she became Prime Minister, reportedly told a Spectator event in London that speculation over her leadership overshadows conversations with cabinet members.

Asked if the party should support the Prime Minister to ensure Brexit remains on track, Mr Osborne said: “I don’t think you do a service to the party that I’m a member of and I’ve been a member of for 25 years of my life, working for and promoting, by pretending there aren’t some very serious challenges that the Government faces and the leadership faces.

“You’ve got to have a clear plan and attempt to lead in pursuit of that plan and that is what the Conservative Government needs to do,” he said in remarks reported by PoliticsHome.

He added: “It’s no good the Conservatives saying ‘well I wish we would stop talking about it’ – you can’t talk to a member of the Cabinet without talking about it and so we’ve got to confront that.”

The London Evening Standard editor, who stood down as an MP earlier this year, refused to rule out a return to politics and said he had moved into newspapers as he “couldn’t quite walk away from the debate about our country’s future”.

Mr Osborne said: “The question for me at the age of 46 is do I go on staying in the political system fighting for these things, when frankly my party has moved away from the positions that I think are most likely to succeed or do I try something new in life, that it turns out that editing a newspaper is both challenging and fun.”

It comes amid reports of further rifts between Ms May and her Chancellor over Brexit after Mr Hammond refused to spend millions preparing for an exit from the EU with no deal.

Former Chancellor Lord Lawson urged the Prime Minister to sack his successor for behaving in a “grossly irresponsible” way over Brexit.