George Osborne, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, opined that the UK’s presence in the crypto landscape is fading as it is slow and over-cautious in bringing a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework. In an opinion piece provided to a leading financial media outlet, Osborne, who is currently serving on the global advisory council of Coinbase, criticized the Labour government and the Bank of England for making the UK fall behind global leaders and being ignored in the digital asset industry.
Why is George Osborne accusing Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Governor Andrew Bailey?
The former Chancellor George Osborne blames Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves for putting the UK on the slow track. “On crypto and stablecoins, as on too many other things, the hard truth is this: we’re being completely left behind. It’s time to catch up,” wrote Osborne in the opinion piece.
Back in April 2025, Rachel Reeves highlighted that she was turning the country into the best place in the world to innovate. And, the Treasury supported her promise to design robust rules around crypto to bolster investor confidence, the growth of fintech, and protect people in Britain. According to Osborne, Chancellor Reeves’ allies also have the same vision of her, as Britain is collaborating with the US on a tech partnership in the wake of the UK-US trade deal.
One of the remarkable comments of Osborne is his comparison of the crypto sector to the “reminiscent of Nigel Lawson’s Big Bang in the 1980s”. The Big Bang was a financial deregulation reform introduced by Chancellor Nigel Lawson in 1986 that reshaped the financial markets of London. He urged that Britain’s crypto industry should follow that period.
The UK has a crypto regulatory framework, but not a single unified one like MiCA
Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) is a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto assets in the European Union (EU). Also, like how Dubai has the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and the US has the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins, Britain lacks any such kinds of comprehensive regulations. However, worth noting, the country has adopted a fragmented but evolving crypto framework. Currently, it has Anti-Money Laundering (AML) acts, the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA), and a few other fragments of regulations playing a major role in shaping the crypto realm.
