George Gideon Oliver Osborne CH (born 23 May 1971) is a British retired politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government.

As Chancellor, Osborne's tenure pursued considerably severe austerity policies, aimed at reducing the budget deficit and launched the Northern Powerhouse initiative.

After the Conservatives won an overall majority in the 2015 general election, Cameron reappointed him Chancellor in his second government and gave him the additional title of First Secretary of State.

His austerity measures are generally now viewed as having failed to reduce unemployment, lower interest rates, or stimulate growth, and have been linked to worsened inequality and poverty and a rise in political instability.

[18] Between 1995 and 1997 he worked as a special adviser to Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Douglas Hogg (during the BSE crisis), and in the Political Office at 10 Downing Street.

He succeeded Independent MP Martin Bell, who had defeated the controversial former Conservative minister Neil Hamilton in 1997 but had kept his promise not to stand there at the following election.

Press reports suggest that the second choice for the post was David Cameron, who also rejected the job, preferring to take on a major public service portfolio (he was made Shadow Secretary of State for Education).

[25] It was widely suggested that Osborne was leading an assault on Brown that would allow the Conservatives to discredit him without damaging David Cameron's public image.

After Osborne spoke in an interview about his own ability to recall odd facts, a host suggested to him that he may have been "faintly autistic"; he responded by saying that "We're not getting onto Gordon Brown yet".

[33][34] The Electoral Commission received a formal complaint initiated in a letter by the Liberal Democrats' Home Affairs spokesperson, Chris Huhne, urging them to investigate the allegations against Osborne.

[37] On 14 November 2008, in an intervention described by the BBC's Nick Robinson as "pretty extraordinary",[38] Osborne publicly warned that the more the government borrows, the less attractive sterling becomes to hold.

Labelling Gordon Brown's tactic a "scorched-earth policy" that a future Conservative government would have to clear up, Osborne continued: "His view is he probably won't win the next election.

[41][43] The Liberal Democrats said he had a "moral obligation" to pay an estimated £55,000 in capital gains tax to the public purse which he had saved through the designation or "flipping" of his London property as his main home.

[44] He had previously paid back £1,193 spent on chauffeur fares and overpayments on his mortgage[45] after a complaint from a Labour activist, and it also emerged that he had claimed £47 for two copies of a DVD of his own speech on "value for taxpayers' money".

[47] During the 2010 general election campaign Osborne was considered to have been sidelined, owing to his perceived unpopularity and the perception by both Liberal Democrat and Labour strategists that he was a "weak link".

[49] On 4 October 2010, in a speech at the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Osborne announced a cap on the overall amount of benefits a family can receive from the state, estimated to be around £500 a week from 2013.

[59] The July budget postponed the predicted arrival of a UK surplus from 2019 to 2020, and included an extra £18 billion more borrowing for 2016–20 than planned for the same period in March.

[69] One study by the Progressive Economy Forum assessed that the United Kingdom lost £540 billion in public spending since George Osborne initiated austerity measures.

The study claimed Osborne could have "maintained historic rates of growth in public spending and still have reduced Britain's government debt burden by 2019".

[72] That was the year of the 2012 United Kingdom budget– dubbed the "omnishambles budget" by the then Labour leader Ed Miliband – viewed as the nadir of Osborne's political fortunes.

He has stated that the British economy must diversify away from London following the 2008 banking crisis, most notably in the form of the Northern Powerhouse policy proposals which aim to improve transport links and boost science and technology investment in the cities of the North in order to increase economic output.

[3][89][90] Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi suggested that the closeness of his relationship with Cameron meant the two effectively shared power in the 2010–16 government, whilst commentators pointed to Osborne's hand in Cabinet reshuffles.

[3] Michael Deacon of The Daily Telegraph has described Osborne as "the prince of the parliamentary putdown" after, during one House of Commons debate, he managed to taunt both Ed Balls and Norman Baker in one sentence.

[95] Unlike Cameron, Osborne intended to remain an MP and stand for Parliament again in 2020, although proposed boundary changes could have led to the abolition of his Tatton constituency.

[99] Osborne's lucrative speaking engagements for a range of financial institutions since his dismissal as Chancellor helped make him the highest earning MP in 2016.

[117] In a profile of Osborne published by Esquire magazine in September 2017, it was said that he had commented to several staff at the Evening Standard that he would not be satisfied until Theresa May was "chopped up in bags in my freezer".

[124] In July 2019, the Financial Times reported that Osborne was seeking backing to replace Christine Lagarde as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Lagarde's replacement was to be selected by the executive board, where the United States, Japan and China held the largest shares of the total vote.

[130][131] On 6 September 2019, Osborne abandoned his IMF leadership attempt,[132] and sources later confirmed that the chief executive of the World Bank, Kristalina Georgieva, had been put forward as the European Union's nominee.

A protester, initially believed to be from the environmental group Just Stop Oil, threw orange confetti over them as they left the church following the wedding ceremony.