Explore Quotes by George Osborne

Tony Blair was a good politician but not a good Prime Minister, and that's what we don't want to be. We don't want to be just people who are good at winning elections: we want to be good at governing. I think we benefit from having seen the mistakes that we think Tony Blair made in 1997.

Of course the Liberal Democrats are going to say things to try and get attention - but I don't think the country is paying much attention.

We need strength and success elsewhere in our country - not by pulling London down but by building the rest of the country up.

The former pension minister, the Liberal Democrat Steve Webb said I was trying to abolish the lump sum. Instead, we are going to keep the lump sum and abolish the Liberal Democrats.

We must bring unity of spirit and purpose and condemn hatred and division wherever we see it.

I serve at the discretion of the prime minister.

I came into politics partly because I want to be able to reduce taxes so that individuals have more of their money to spend, so that businesses have more of their money to create jobs, but I believe that lower taxes are sustainable when you get the public finances in order, so I will only make promises I can keep on taxation.

I am a social liberal.

Margaret Thatcher's government redistributed money from rich to poor. And that's the nature of a modern western democracy.

I've always thought that good politics follows from good economics and good policies.

Leaving the E.U. was not the outcome that I wanted or campaigned, but now that democracy has spoken, we must act on that result. I will fully respect that result.

I do not want Britain to turn its back on Europe or the rest of the world.

If the country's poorer, it's got less money.

I'm tempted to say that Conservative governments are normally elected to clear up the mess left by Labour governments.

It's not enough to tackle just the symptoms of poverty. You have to tackle the causes of poverty.

I think people who sit around and are always yearning for the next thing are not always the happiest people.

The Conservative party absolutely must not allow itself to be shut out of parts of the north of England.

The Conservative party is at its strongest when it's not the party that says there is no role for government and the state should just get out of the way. That is not a strand of Conservative thinking that, by itself, is enough.

I fought passionately to remain in the E.U., and I warned of the economic risks if we left the E.U.

We are not quitters. Britain has always gone out there; we have probably been more influential than any other country in shaping our world and the way it has thought about itself, the way we interact as nations.

If we leave the European Union, there will be an immediate economic shock that will hit financial markets. People will not know what the future looks like.