George Osborne: Theresa May won’t survive as Tory leader, election looked like ‘power grab’ George Osborne has launched a blistering attack on Theresa May. He branded her manifesto a “total disaster”, saying she is […]

George Osborne has launched a blistering attack on Theresa May. He branded her manifesto a “total disaster”, saying she is unlikely to survive as Tory leader in the long term.

The former Chancellor’s London Evening Standard newspaper said Ms May was the “queen of denial” on its front page. Other editions of the paper referred to “May’s right royal mess”, “May’s Irish bailout”, and “May hung out to dry”.

‘Big post-mortem’

Mr Osborne also used his platform as a pundit on ITV’s election night coverage to deliver a damning verdict. “It’s difficult to see, if these numbers are right, how they would put together the coalition to remain in office,” he said. “But equally it’s quite difficult to see how Labour could put together a coalition. It’s on a real knife-edge.

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“Clearly, if [Theresa May] has got a worse result than two years ago and is almost unable to form a government then she, I doubt, will survive in the long term as Conservative party leader.”

After Tory losses including the government minister Jane Ellison in Battersea were predicted, Mr Osborne said: “These are not people we should be losing from parliament, and there will be a very big post-mortem coming.”

He said the manifesto had been a “‘total disaster” and said he “could not think of a worse one in history”.

Dementia tax

The Standard’s editorial on Friday was even more damning of Ms May’s motivations for calling the poll.

It read: “She made much of the fact that she didn’t play the “political games” of others but voters never believed her decision to call a snap election was anything other than a naked attempt to grab a landslide. They called her out.”

The paper described the so-called dementia tax as a “disastrous foray into social care that was concealed from the Cabinet. It said: “It should have been hidden from voters too.”

Mr Osborne’s use of the paper to criticise the Conservative campaign has been seen as an act of revenge. Ms May refused to offer Mr Osborne a cabinet post when she became Prime Minister. But the Standard did endorse a Conservative vote, saying the party had “better policies and better personnel than the alternative”.