George Osborne

And in the background, he's got his foreign secretary, my boss, uh, Ed Miliband, and his defense secretary, Wes Streeting, working firmly in the margins on important issues, uh, such as what we're doing with Israel and Palestine, uh, and our continued efforts to support Ukraine.

Uh, I, I wonder, though, whether what you're describing in terms of Andy Burnham's pitch, is it all that different to what a couple of those Tory governments like, you know, the David Cameron, George Osborne government that promised all sorts of stuff for the north of England, or even maybe the Boris Johnson government that broke through that, that red wall in various parts of regional England and further north? That was kind of the pitch then as well.

Is this any different?

I think what's probably changed in the last few years is the time in which a prime minister has to deliver some of the stuff.

They did two things.

So for instance, George Osborne comes in after 2010.

He reduces corporation tax.

They reduced the top rate, and they increased VAT.

Um, also, just to step back from the specifics here, um, new, uh, leaders tend to like to appoint their own person at the central bank.

Uh, George Osborne did that with Mark Carney, people may remember in the UK.

In Japan, there was, uh, Abenomics under Shinzo Abe.

He appointed his guy as governor.

I'm Mike Graham.

Coming up, we're going over to Beijing to find out what George Osborne is up to.

Excellent.

This is

Right, now that we're going to go across to Beijing, though.

Yep.

uh and catch up with our good friend mr peter smith because george osborne was visiting uh the parish uh this week and uh while his boss david cameron's been dealing with all manner of lurid allegations yes he's been touring not just the factories and the uh and the cities but also the football business as well peter a very good morning to you welcome peter's not there

no he's not there so i'm sorry the satellite to china is not currently functioning but don't worry about that

Did increase VAT.

George Osborne and Cameron in 2010 said they wouldn't increase VAT.

They increased VAT.

Politicians do it all the time.

So, you know, I've had a difficult relationship.

But there are also times when George Osborne or Andy Colson would call me and say, it could go a bit easy for a little while, or we really need you to go and fight on these issues.

And because you're independent, it's helpful to me.

If that conversation had taken place with Lee, you know, I would have listened.

Also, just to step back from the specifics here, new leaders tend to like to appoint their own person at the central bank.

George Osborne did that with Mark Carney, people may remember in the UK.

In Japan, there was Arbenomics under Shinzo Abe.

He appointed... his guy as governor.

I would like to point out gently that I've got a lot of exposure to nooks and crannies of Britain doing this veteran book 'cause I rely heavily on families to, um, facilitate their very elderly golden nuggets of preciousness.

And I have noticed, observed, that in many instances, those on welfare are there because they have sometimes been rendered disabled from having to wait so long on an NHS queue, a- a- NHS queue, and arguably you can take it all the way back to George Osborne's austerity cuts.

[laughs]

No, seriously, Ian, where actually, if you leave people in a disabled situation because they simply don't have access to the necessary healthcare, then they depend on state welfare, and their dependents become dependent on state welfare, and it's like a vicious circle, and I've seen that in, replicated in several different parts of Britain.