Osborne's regret over economy boost

Friday 04 July 2014

Chancellor George Osborne has said he wishes he had done more to help Britain's economy when the coalition first came to power, during a question and answer session with children. Mr Osborne told the panel of youngsters, who interviewed him for Sky News, he regretted that his attempts to reform the economy had not gone far enough.

Asked about his greatest regret since coming to office in 2010, he said: "When you get into office that's your opportunity to take some really big decisions. And we did take some big decisions because then you've got a few years to see them played out. "But actually I look back and think there's even more we could have done to fix some of the economic problems and I want to go on therefore taking decisions that will help create jobs. If anything, it's like I wish we'd done even more."

Mr Osborne defended the arguments that occur during Prime Minister's Questions as "passion" and also ducked a simple maths question from seven-year-old Sam Raddings, who asked the chancellor what seven times eight is.

Mr Osborne replied: "I've made it a rule in life not to answer a whole load of maths questions."