Osborne dumps lucrative speaking role at Paris hedge fund event

For months, George Osborne has been accumulating lucrative jobs at a rate of knots.

Now (Frankfurt: 11N.F - news) , just days after announcing that he will give up his Tatton seat at June's General Election, the former Chancellor appears to be shedding them just as quickly.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Osborne has cancelled a speaking engagement at a hedge fund conference in Paris due to take place on his second day in the editor's seat at London's Evening Standard.

Organisers of the Hedge Fund Intelligence European Summit confirmed Mr Osborne's withdrawal from the event - which would have netted him tens of thousands of pounds - "due to overriding professional engagements".

His withdrawal comes after the conference's schedule was rejigged to enable Mr Osborne to fulfil his editing duties in London next Tuesday morning before travelling across the Channel for a late afternoon speaking slot.

The former Chancellor is expected to take up his role as the Evening Standard's editor on 2 May, and his acceptance of the Paris invitation so early in his newspaper career had already attracted criticism.

The reasons behind his decision to abandon the hedge fund event were unclear on Thursday, and his office could not be reached for comment.

However, a number of media commentators have expressed doubt about his ability to make objective journalistic judgements while accepting five- and six-figure sums from industries and companies that his newspaper is required to cover impartially.

When his shock appointment was announced last month, the publisher's statement said the Evening Standard's schedule would "enable Mr Osborne to edit the paper and continue to fulfil his other commitments, including as an MP; giving him the time to vote and contribute in Parliament in the afternoon after the paper has gone to print, and be in his constituency".

Since then, he has chosen not to stand for re-election in June and overseen the appointment of the inaugural director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a thinktank established to continue work he started at the Treasury promoting economic growth in the north of England.

Mr Osborne is due to earn £650,000-a-year as a senior adviser to the Blackrock Investment Institute, a role to which he was appointed in January.

He also has a paid role at the Washington Speakers Bureau.