Osborne said the row had encouraged the institution to press ahead with talks over loaning the Parthenon marbles to Athens.
‘That is, I think, something worth exploring. And we can go on doing it whether or not Rishi Sunak meets the Greek prime minister or not. In fact, if anything, things have been rather clarified by this week.
We obviously know we’re not going to get any particular support from the Conservative government.’
At a two-day Nato summit in Brussels last week, the Greek foreign minister, Giorgos Gerapetritis, received an unexpected message: the foreign secretary, David Cameron, asked the minister for an unscheduled meeting (there was much to discuss: migration, relief operation in Gaza), be it under one condition: no cameras.
Gerapetritis readily agreed, and probably it took only an un-minuted raised eyebrow from Lord Cameron for the former prime minister to distance himself discreetly from Rishi Sunak’s bizarre decision to cancel a scheduled Downing Street visit with his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
