George Osborne Quotes

Well you know I've attracted a lot of criticism by, for example, suggesting that child benefit should be taken away from higher rate taxpaying families.

Britain has no divine right to be one of the richest countries in the world.

We have supported the banks, they should be supporting the economy now.

Just as we should never balance the budget on the backs of the poor, so it is an economic delusion to think you can balance it only on the wallets of the rich.

We need a coalition in this country. A coalition of change. People who have had enough of this.

The Foreign Office is a very important arm of the British state and I think Britain has a fantastic diplomatic service. We are the only country in the world spending 2% of our national income on defence and 0.7% of our national income on aid. We are the only country in the world doing both of those things.

Our first benchmark is to cut the deficit more quickly to safeguard Britain’s credit rating. I know that we are taking a political gamble to set this up as a measure of success. Protecting the credit rating will not be easy The pace of fiscal consolidation will be co-ordinated with monetary policy. And we will protect Britain's credit rating and international reputation.

Britain is China's best partner in the West.

We support the auto-enrolment but we have our doubts about the way the National Pension Scheme is going to be structured.

The rise in world oil prices has been larger than anyone forecast.

We have management questions. On increasing the basic state pension in line with earnings, because we have made a clear promise and said that the increase in the pension age has to be brought forward, that is an affordable and deliverable commitment from the Conservative Party.

I'm not saying "job done" but I am actually pretty confident that Britain can be one of the biggest winners from these big global changes that are taking place and indeed become the richest of the major economies in the world in this coming generation.

We want people to have a stake in the British economy so I am in favour of actually encouraging people to have small shareholdings and feel they've got a stake in our economic future.

The Conservative party, the modern Conservative party, is on the side of people who want to work hard and get on.

I find China such a fascinating and interesting country. Each time I come back something has changed and it's moved on in leaps and bounds.

I think we woefully failed to connect Britain to the growing Chinese economy in the previous decade, and I have sought to remedy that. China is now the sixth biggest trading partner with the UK. We have attracted now the lion's share of Chinese investment that is going into Europe.

I think the British people have a strong sense of what is fair.

You also want to look at how the tax system encourages and rewards pension saving. I have set as an ambition reversing the effects of Gordon Brown's tax raid which heralded the beginning of the age of responsibility. We are looking at some very specific tax measures on how we can encourage saving.

I am actually quite encouraged and I think, actually, the UK is coping with globalisation a lot better than most other European countries. And that is reflected in the fact that (whilst of course there are people who are still unemployed) our unemployment rate is low and (whilst of course we need to export more) we are attracting a huge amount of inward investment into Britain.

Put on top of that the fact that the whole world is looking at Britain and saying how is this country going to pay its way in the future. They are looking at other countries like Greece who can't pay their way in the future and you see savage spending cuts, big cuts in pay.

I see no real argument in Britain that is concerned that an Indian company owns our most successful car manufacturer or that the sewer system under London is being renewed in part by Chinese investment. There are the odd voices that express concern but they are very marginal and they are not being listened to by the British people.

One big theme for me is that we have got to move from an economy built on debt to one where we save and invest in the future.

Britain cannot afford to cut itself off from what is going on in the world, we are too interconnected with what is going on, we have a powerful history and tradition of taking an interest in what is going on in the world, we've also got a very real interest in the future, in remaining connected.

Britain should not be forced to make a choice between joining the single currency and leaving the EU, because if we're forced to make that choice we would leave the EU.

I support gay marriage. I support gay marriage because I believe Conservatives support the institutions of commitment.

Whether [people] run their own business, work for a business, go out there, pay their taxes and see the money wasted, fed up with the money going to the next door neighbor sitting permanently on out of work benefits. There needs to be a coalition of change.

Britain wants the single currency to be a success. It is massively in our interests that we have a stable financial system on our doorstep.

There are those people who don't want change. Well there needs to be a coalition for change amongst the hard-working mainstream majority of the country to crack on and sort out Britain's problems.

Believe me, I understand that most higher rate taxpayers are not the super-rich.

Everyone in our society has had to make a contribution towards dealing with the debts.

We have to be pretty tough with mortgage companies and say you have got to give people the chance to work out their debts, sort out future mortgages.

You know the illusion of the cheap money is over and now Britain has to go out there and graft and earn its way and create wealth and prosperity in a very competitive world.

If we don't get a grip on government spending, there will be no growth.

China is absolutely one of the biggest players in the world and if Britain wants to be connected to the world it has to be connected to China.

There are a lot of examples where people aren't getting the right information. We could do a lot more with credit card bills so people properly understand that if you pay off the minimum it could take you 41 years to pay off is that right.

I want Britain to be a global financial centre but I want it to be properly regulated.

You need to have a state pension that doesn't drag more and more people into means-testing each year and make it very difficult for people on low to medium term incomes to save and not see their savings clawed away.

I get a lot of letters from people.

I would say I have taken substantive action to make things easier for people.

For example at the moment there is a compulsory requirement to buy an annuity. That is something we would get rid of. It puts some people off saving.

Even a China growing at 7% or indeed less is still adding to the world economy an economy equivalent to the UK or more.

One of the big problems we have in this country is that not enough people understand how important it is to save, understand the details of credit card statements, to be able to compare different APRs and the like. I support the idea.

What I'm interested in is Britain projecting itself abroad, and through that its values and the things it holds dear. And I don't think you do that by refusing to talk to the world's second-largest economy [China]. In fact, that is positively counter-productive in my view.

A generous basic state pension is the least a civilized society should offer those who have worked hard and saved through their whole lives.

We can help people. We have got to move this economy from its over-dependence on debt. People should have manageable debts, a manageable mortgage.

The British people think that if someone is disabled, then they should get all the care and support that we can offer.

I very much support financial education in schools.

Let's also teach people about pensions and savings, insurance and the like. But if they aren't already familiar with numbers that won't be as effective as it might be.