George Osborne 'regrets' EU referendum

Former chancellor George Osborne has said he regrets a series of mistakes in government which led to the EU referendum.

During an appearance on BBC's Newnight, Osborne said the Conservatives had tried to "out UKIP UKIP" by making promises on immigration that were impossible to fulfil.

He also warned the party not to try to "out Corbyn Corbyn" following Hammond's budget, which relaxed some of Osborne's tight fiscal rules.

Osborne - who is now editor of the Evening Standard - warned the Tories not to lose their reputation for fiscal responsibility.

"The Conservatism I think that works is socially progressive and fiscally conservative - and we lost in the election I wasn’t involved in 2017 because we tried to out Ukip Ukip. We aren’t going to win the next election by trying to out-Corbyn Corbyn.

"The Conservatives should stand their ground for what I think still millions of people are, they want a progressive, successful country, you’ve got to live within your means, pro-business - and trying to bang the nationalist drum doesn’t work for modern Conservatism and trying to outspend our political opponents won’t help the Conservatives either."

On Brexit. the former Chancellor said the Tories got things “wrong” by making unachievable promises to cut immigration, while failing to highlight the positive aspects of EU membership.

He said: "I think we were wrong to play into the debate that everything that Brussels did was a challenge and a battle and was wrong. We were too late in the day to try and explain the benefits of EU membership.

"On immigration we were promising targets we couldn’t deliver and that then led to a debate on how we would deliver those targets - not that I see any evidence that they are going to be delivered in the future. So we definitely contributed to that argument and didn’t make enough of the value of immigration."

Mr Osborne also said he regretted a lack of focus on the banking system after the 2008 crash, but he insisted his austerity policies had not driven the vote for Brexit.