CONSERVATIVE MPs believe Theresa May will not lead them into the 2022 General Election, George Osborne has suggested.

The former Chancellor attacked the current Tory Government's record, arguing it was "losing economic credibility," and suggesting it was hostile to business, "anti-tech" and pretending it could build the homes the country needed without easing green belt restrictions.

Mr Osborne, who now edits the London Evening Standard, said Mrs May would survive a vote of confidence in the House of Commons but stressed that that was not the true test of the strength of her leadership

At a Press Gallery lunch at Westminster, he said: "The essential question is going to be: is there going to be a change of leadership in this Parliament? The Conservative Parliamentary Party assumes there will be; the Prime Minister has said nothing about that. And at some point that is going to come to a head."

He added: "I would make the observation that it is the consensus view of the Conservative Parliamentary Party that the leadership should change. So at some point something will happen."

Asked if he regretted his comment about wanting Mrs May "chopped up in bags in my freezer", which he had already apologised for, the former Cabinet minister replied: "It's taught me a few things about editorial conference meetings."

During the lunch Mr Osborne made pointed remarks, which appeared to be aimed at the May Government, which took over from the administration he helped David Cameron run.

He told reporters: "If you as a party set yourselves against the future, if we're hostile to business, if we think they are the problem not the solution, if the Cabinet game becomes who can get the most money out of the Chancellor, if we're anti-tech, if we talk about building homes but pretend they can only be built on brown fields, then we will lose our economic credibility and cause damage to our country's economic future."

He also claimed Mrs May's approach to Brexit had cost the Tories votes at June's election.

Mr Osborne added: "I'm hugely impressed that the Conservative leadership won in Stoke and Mansfield and Middlesbrough which did not happen when I was in charge of general elections, but we lost in Bath and in Bristol and in Reading and in Brighton, and indeed in the home constituency of the Evening Standard, Kensington.

"You've got to be able to try and hold both and if you say to 48 per cent of the country[who voted Remain]: decision over, we don't want to hear from you again; 48 per cent of the country will make their voice heard."

On a return to frontline politics, he said: “I don't rule it out just because you can be foolish saying never to things but it is certainly not what I think I'm going to be doing with my life in the future.

"I am very much enjoying editing the paper and for me aged 46, having had 20 years in politics, I've discovered a new career and a new life and I'm quite enjoying it."

The former Chancellor also turned his fire on Labour and the current leadership, describing Jeremy Corbyn as the “biggest obstacle to Labour winning an election,” arguing that if the party had a "middling" moderate social democrat, then it would be 20 points ahead in the opinion polls.

"Instead the Labour movement is consumed by an internal battle for its soul," he added.