Former chancellor says he was not keen on decision to hold last year’s referendum and was pessimistic about the likely result

George Osborne has hinted that he is open to making a political comeback, as he spoke of his opposition to holding the EU referendum and gloom about the prospects of remain winning.

The former chancellor, who now edits the Evening Standard, said he could not have run to be leader of the Conservative party after strongly campaigning to stay in the EU, partly because he would have had little enthusiasm for carrying out Brexit.

But he signalled that he might be interested in returning to the political frontline in the future, even though he was currently amused by the spectacle of Conservative politicians jostling to succeed Theresa May.

“I don’t rule out going back into politics, but it is certainly not plan A,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Osborne said he was “not keen” on the decision by the then prime minister David Cameron to stage a referendum on Britain’s EU membership, confirming reports that he had been opposed to the plan.

The former chancellor, who was sacked when May entered No 10, said he had always been “gloomy” about the likely result of last year’s vote.

However, he said he had not wanted to create difficulties for Cameron, who remained a close friend and ally.

“I was not keen on having a referendum in the first place, but I chose to be part of the collective decision making of the government,” he said.

“I certainly did not walk out of the government at the time. That is not the way I tried to behave as chancellor. I was not trying to be the difficult next-door neighbour. I was trying to be the person who, with David Cameron, my friend, made things work for the country.”

As the referendum approached, Osborne said he had become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of a remain victory.



“I was always quite gloomy about the referendum and its outcome,” he said. “I went round the country and I kept hearing from people I would assume wanted to stay in the EU that they wanted to leave, so I was pretty pessimistic.”

Osborne said he could not see the Brexit decision being reversed by parliament or a second referendum. But he said there was still time to debate the terms on which Britain withdrew.



“I don’t accept that just because we are leaving the EU we have to, for example, leave the customs union or radically clamp down on immigration,” he said.