George Osborne’s attempts to undermine Theresa May have continued as he stoked a Tory rebellion on education funding on just his second day as editor of the London Evening Standard.

Mr Osborne used his first editorial in the newspaper on Tuesday to criticise the Prime Minister’s general election campaign, suggesting that it amounted to “no more than a slogan".

And he continued his assault on Mrs May on Wednesday, using his second editorial and a front page story quoting a dozen Tory MP candidates to warn the Prime Minister that she must “back down” over her plans to shake up school funding.

The Government wants to introduce a national funding formula for schools so that the money it hands out is distributed more evenly across England.

But the plans would see many schools, particularly those in urban areas, lose out with funding taken away and redistributed elsewhere.