Theresa May has been named politician of the year by conservative magazine the Spectator, and accepted the award from George Osborne while dressed in the hard hat and hi-vis jacket combination he became famous for wearing.
Appearing onstage at Wednesday’s event, the prime minister joked that “we’re all builders now”, taking the line former chancellor Osborne borrowed from Nye Bevan at last year’s Conservative party conference. And she made a joke at the expense of Craig Oliver, the former director of communications to her predecessor at No 10, David Cameron.
“I’m particularly pleased to see Craig Oliver is here tonight. Sorry, Sir Craig. I have to say: I understand that in his book about the referendum campaign, Craig says that, when he heard the result of the referendum, he walked out of the office, he walked into Whitehall and he started retching violently,” she told the audience.
“I have to say: I think we all know that feeling. Most of us experienced it too. When we saw his name on the resignation honours list,” May joked.
Also among the winners at the ceremony in London was the Labour MP Jess Phillips, who was named backbencher of the year. “She comes out swinging,” the Spectator’s editor Fraser Nelson said.
Her Labour colleague, the shadow chancellor John McDonnell, was named the campaigner of the year. “ [He] fundamentally reshaped the membership, persuading tens of thousands of new members to join – and transform – the party. Jeremy Corbyn was the face of this phenomenon, but the brains belonged to his shadow chancellor,” Nelson said.
The former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith was given the award for resignation of the year “to recognise the art of going out forcefully, if not always gracefully”.
Accepting the award, Duncan Smith told Osborne: “The only difference between the two of us was that I had a prescient idea of what was going to happen and I resigned before Theresa could actually sack me. That’s the main difference.”
