‘Project Fear architect’ George Osborne backs former Brexit rival Boris Johnson in Tory leadership race and claims the favourite could make UK ‘feel good about itself again’
- Tory former chancellor says Mr Johnson can unite warring party and divided UK
- Mr Osborne says frontrunner’s ‘credibility’ with Brexiteers could break deadlock
- Decision will raise eyebrows given Mr Osborne’s big role in Remain campaign
George Osborne has backed Boris Johnson in the race for Downing Street as he said the former mayor of London was the ‘best shot’ to unite the nation.
The former chancellor who stood down as a Tory MP at the 2017 general election said Mr Johnson was the candidate who could bring together the warring government and also make the UK feel ‘good about itself again’.
His decision to support Mr Johnson is likely to raise eyebrows within the Conservative Party given Mr Osborne was one of the leading figures in the Remain campaign in the run up to the 2016 EU referendum.
Mr Osborne was accused of being the architect of ‘Project Fear’ in the run up to June 23 as he repeatedly warned against voting for Brexit on the grounds it would do major harm to the British economy.
He is now fully behind a Tory leadership candidate who is expected to win the keys to Downing Street precisely because of his Brexiteer credentials.
George Osborne, pictured today at a service of thanksgiving for former cabinet secretary Lord Heywood at Westminster Abbey, has backed Boris Johnson as the ‘best shot’ to unite the UK
Mr Johnson, pictured leaving Parliament today, is the overwhelming favourite to become the next prime minister
Mr Osborne revealed his decision in the Evening Standard newspaper, of which he is the editor, as he said Mr Johnson was best placed to give the UK the three things it ‘desperately needs’.
‘First, Mr Johnson is the candidate who has a chance of uniting this divided government,’ he wrote in the newspaper’s editorial today.
‘He should be under no illusion that it will be a monumental task. To avoid the fate of the outgoing Prime Minister, who laboured in office but not in power, he must harness the credibility he has with Brexiteers to the liberal internationalist credentials he displayed as Mayor.’
Secondly, Mr Osborne said Mr Johnson had the ‘most room for manoeuvre’ to resolve the Brexit impasse which has split his party and the country.
He pointed to the fact that Mr Johnson has not guaranteed that he will take the UK out of the EU on October 31 with No Deal as evidence that the front runner could yet choose to try to persuade Eurosceptics to back a very similar deal to the one agreed by Theresa May.
He wrote: ‘Ask yourself which of these potential Prime Ministers is most likely to persuade the Conservative Party to vote for a repacked version of the existing deal?
‘The one with the greatest credibility with hard Brexiteers.’
Mr Osborne revealed his backing for Mr Johnson in an editorial in the Evening Standard newspaper of which he is the editor
Thirdly, Mr Osborne said Mr Johnson was the ‘candidate who might just get Britain feeling good about itself again’.
The former chancellor said that if Mr Johnson does succeed Mrs May and form a ‘modern Conservative’ government he can ‘put his party, and country back on track’.
The editorial was accompanied by an interview with Mr Johnson in which he said Brexit divisions across Britain were a source of concern.
He said: ‘Yes, and the way we need to heal them and get this thing done is to get Brexit over the line, deliver it for the people and then concentrate on modern Conservative policies.’
He also revealed that he would be happy if his tombstone read: ‘There was somebody who helped to unite the country and unite society.’
The decision to back Mr Johnson represents something of a change of heart for Mr Osborne given his previous criticism of his fellow Tory heavyweight.
In May of this year he said he believed there were two versions of Mr Johnson and he was unsure which one would be contesting the Tory leadership race.
He told ITV: ‘There has always been two Boris’s. There is hard Brexit Boris and there is the mayor who won Tory victories in a city which previously voted Labour.
‘We will see which Boris emerges.’