George Osborne warns that he won’t ‘fumble’ his next leadership bid

Well, that didn’t take long. George Osborne has had dinner with the FT and the write-up shows him as ambitious as ever. Having never held down a job outside of politics, the former Chancellor isn’t looking for one now. ‘I am not going anywhere,’ he said, ‘I want to see what happens next.’ It seems he is angling for Christine Lagarde’s job at the IMF, but the most striking quote is about his leadership ambitions:

‘Asked about a possible return to the front line, Mr Osborne adopted — with a twist — a phrase used by Mr Johnson in 2013 to deflect questions about his prime ministerial intentions: ‘If the ball came loose at the back of the scrum, I wouldn’t fumble it,’ Mr Osborne, 45, said.’

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Mr S wonders if Osborne has realised what has just happened.