George Osborne, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, has discovered that he is Jewish.

The former Tory MP revealed his maternal grandmother Clarisse Loxton-Peacock - a glamorous Hungarian emigre - was a Jew who came to Britain before the war.

Mr Osborne, 46, was informed by his youngest brother Theo who had begun investigating his maternal grandmother’s background after falling in love with a Jewish woman.

Theo Osborne, 33, an investment manager, had embarked on the lengthy process to convert in order to marry his American fiancée Justine Fisher in an orthodox Jewish ceremony.

But part way through a conversion that can take several years, he uncovered documents that proved his grandmother - born Clarisse Feher - and her family had been members of a synagogue in Budapest.

Other evidence, thought to have included Hungarian birth certificates, also demonstrated the family’s Jewish origins.