X-rated Osborne joke backfires
By politics.co.uk staff
A joke in which the chancellor alluded to all politicians being w****rs has backfired, triggering a negative reaction in the press.
George Osborne was picking up the 'politician on the year' award at GQ when he made the joke, which reportedly resulting in some heckling from the audience.
"It is a pleasure to win this award. I’ve just come from addressing about 300 bankers in the City of London and it says something about my profession that I was still the most unpopular person in the room. It is a fine recognition,' he told the crowd.
"I'm not sure who actually reads the politics pages of GQ magazine.
"I suspect they are the only pages that a teenage boy hasn't stuck together in reading the magazine. Some might say that’s because the w***ers are on the page rather than reading them."
Host David Mitchell said Mr Osborne had "lowered the tone".
Stephen Fry later told him: "What were you thinking? Are you aware the magazine has male models? Were you thinking of Maxim?”
He later tweeted that Mr Osborne had “made an arse of himself”.
