George Osborne admits he gambled away his Cabinet career by fighting hard to keep Britain in the EU

GEORGE Osborne has admitted he gambled away his Cabinet career by putting "everything on the line" to stay in the EU.

The former Chancellor insisted he still stands by all of his 'Project Fear' assault for a Remain vote.

And despite being brutally sacked by Theresa May, he still pledged to give her his full support.

Speaking for the first time since being booted out of the Cabinet, Mr Osborne said: "I fought hard – as hard as I could – for a different outcome to the referendum.

"I didn’t do it by half-measures.

"I put everything on the line, and don’t regret for a moment that I did."

Instead of playing it safe, Mr Osborne insisted he was "never interested in occupying high office just to say I did the job", adding: "I wanted to take risks and do things that might make a difference."

Tory MPs thought the ex-Treasury boss would lead a breakaway faction of sacked former ministers against Mrs May from the backbenches.

But he declared in the Centre for Policy Studies' Margaret Thatcher Lecture: "Tonight, and in the future, Theresa May and the new team she has assembled will have my support.

"She has the strength and the integrity to do the job, as she faces up to the great challenge that lies ahead.";

Mr Osborne also mounted a passionate defence of Britain's interventions in world conflicts as he warned MPs not to become isolationists.

And he branded the Commons vote in 2013 not to launch missile strikes on Syrian tyrant President Assad for using chemical weapons "the worst decision it made in the 15 years I’ve been an MP."

Mr Osborne added: "My political generation knows the cost of intervention.

"The lives lost, the controversy caused.

"But my generation is also starting to learn about the cost of non-intervention."

The 45-year-old also pledged to fight on from the back benches for his vision of a Northern Powerhouse of linked up towns and cities.

Insisting he was "passionately committed" to his three year old idea, he added: "I won’t let go of that."

Also heaping praise on his successor as Chancellor Philip Hammond, Mr Osborne said: "There is literally no one I would rather see in Number 11 after me than Philip.

"It’s a tough job; he will make his own judgements; and he will have my full backing as he does so."

Mr Osborne also insisted he counted himself "fortunate" to have been at David Cameron's side in No11 for six years as his team "turned around the fortunes first of our party, and then of our country."