Tony Blair has backed George Osborne as Evening Standard editor while senior Tory questions the appointment
Rules on MPs taking second jobs could be changed after ex-Chancellor takes on new role, says chairman of the standards watchdog
TONY BLAIR has backed George Osborne’s as the new Evening Standard editor despite foierce criticism, saying his appointment “should make politics more interesting”.
But senior Tory and former journalist Ruth Davidson has cast doubt on whether the ex-Chancellor would have time to perform his new role and stay as an MP.
It comes as 150,000 have signed calling on him to choose between staying in Parliament or editing the capital’s biggest newspaper.
And overnight it was revealed the rules on MPs taking second jobs could be changed after his appointment, the chairman of the country's chief standards watchdog has said.
And it has sparked calls for an inquiry into whether he broke rules for former ministers by failing to clear the appointment with the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which vets new jobs taken by senior public figures.
But Mr Osborne's elevation to the job, set to be vacated by current editor Sarah Sands in May, was welcomed by former prime minister Mr Blair.
He told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: "I think it is a great thing for the Evening Standard. Why not? He is a highly capable guy and it should make politics more interesting.”
But Ms Davidson, the Scottish Conservatives Leader, who worked as a BBC journalist for many years before entering politics, was less enthusiastic.
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She told the same programme: "I have to say I thought 'well, he's a better man than me' because I spent ten years as a journalist, I've now spent six years as a politician and I'm not sure you can combine them both.
“Because, you know, I work a pretty busy week as it is and this week in particular, so I'm not sure you can do both at the same time, if I'm honest."
Mr Osborne is no stranger to controversy for taking work outside Parliament, after he accepted a post as an adviser to the US asset management fund BlackRock for £650,000 a year.
He has also racked up more than £780,000 in speaking fees since being booted out of No11 by Theresa May last summer, and gets a £120,000 stipend for a fellowship at the Washington-based McCain Institute think tank.
There has been anger from lots of MPs for taking on his sixth job amid calls for him to trigger a by-election in his Tatton seat – some 200 miles away from the Evening Standard’s offices in west London.
A report in the Sunday Times said several Eurosceptic Tories reacted with astonishment on a WhatsApp group when it was announced he was being made editor by the paper’s owner Evgeny Lebedev.
Ex-party leader Iain Duncan Smith wrote: "Hmmm . . . why do I keep thinking of Gordon Gekko . . . greed is good.”
Sir Gerald Howarth added: "A man of his immense ability can surely speak for Cheshire and London before lunch, advise BlackRock over lunch and tender his invaluable advice to the House after lunch before holding a dinner party for the bien pensants remainians of Notting Hill in the evening. Sorted.”
