by Rachel Sylvester, Alice Thomson

George Freeman is a man in a hurry. A few years ago, one of David Cameron’s policy advisers turned to him at the end of a meeting in No 10 and said: “You’re very impatient, aren’t you?”

It took him a moment to realise this was not meant to be a compliment but he surprised himself with the strength of his response. “I looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘Yes, I am impatient but that’s because I’m 46, which is 12 years younger than my father was when he died a year after I met him.

The Times