Does David Cameron agree with ally George Osborne that Labour's Rachel Reeves is his heir?
Would David Cameron help to Labour if Keir Starmer asked? Foreign Secretary David Cameron speaks to Anushka Asthana
George Osborne once described his closest ally, David Cameron, as an "heir to Blair". Now the former chancellor suggests that Labour's Rachel Reeves is "heir to David Cameron".
Does he, now Lord Cameron, agree? I asked while travelling with him in Central Asia, in an interview for ITV News and ITV's Peston.
Cameron laughed: "George Osborne, since he's been doing this blog has been nothing but trouble to me, I can tell you."
I didn't mention that Osborne is making most comments via a podcast (although there is a Spectator column too) but did press the point.
"Do you think Rachel Reeves is the heir to you? Are you impressed by her?"
"I think the heir to me as leader of the Conservative Party is Rishi Sunak, and he's doing an excellent job," he came back with, a comment that might delight the current PM but maybe not all of those on the right of his party who saw Cameron's reappointment as Sunak taking a shift to a more liberal position.
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These days Osborne is close to a different former politician, Ed Balls, who was Labour's education secretary and later shadow chancellor.
Recently on GMB he asked Cameron if he'd accept foreign secretary for a Labour government if Keir Starmer won. No, he replied.
I put to Cameron that even if he wouldn't be in Labour's frontbench, would he be an adviser or a tsar? If he was asked to do so, for the sake of the country?
"Questions beginning with if are always dangerous, and so what I'd say to you is look, I'm totally focused on being foreign secretary for Rishi Sunak who's taking this bold move today."
That's not a no, I pointed out. " I'm a Conservative. I work for Conservative governments."
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