Three times George Osborne attracted ridicule with tweets before a set-piece speech

Chancellor retains penchant for inexplicable pens in pre-budget social media posts

He's getting a reputation for weird pre-budget tweets (PA)

George Osborne has continued his tradition of posting apparently staged and slightly awkward photos of himself ahead of major budget speechs.

As he prepared to present the Autumn Statement, Mr Osborne tweeted a image of his hand holding a blue biro, hovering over a copy of the spending review – which was seemingly unmarked by ink.

When the Chancellor of the Exchequer presented his first post-coalition budget in July, he was mocked by Twitter users when he posed for a photo pretending to write on a printed document using a pen.

Users rejoiced in making fun of the fact that he was posing with a pen which seemingly had no use.

And back in June 2013, as he prepared to give a spending review speech, he posted a photo of himself "putting the final touches" on his speech. This seemingly included tucking into a takeaway burger and chips, later discovered to be from upscale burger joint Byron.

Again, Twitter users were quick to suggest that rather than "putting the final touches" to his speech, he was simply eating a burger.

Others suggested the Chancellor also appeared to be holding an imaginary knife and fork in the image,