Pride of place above George Osborne’s new desk at the Evening Standard is a front page from his first day as editor. “Brussels twists the knife”, the paper’s headline declares, reflecting Theresa May’s turmoil over the UK’s Brexit negotiations with the EU.
Six weeks on and following a disastrous election for the prime minister, who unceremoniously dumped Mr Osborne in the wake of Brexit, it is the former chancellor who has been turning the knife, using the platform of one of Westminster’s most widely read papers to exact his revenge.
“A dead woman walking,” was how Mr Osborne described Mrs May on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show last Sunday, as the prime minister attempted to tie up a deal with the DUP, a unionist party in Northern Ireland, to secure a parliamentary majority.