Call me Jeff: Obama mistakes Chancellor for soul singer

The US president apparently mixed the Chancellor up with one of his favourite soul singers, Jeffrey Osborne.

And he committed another faux pas by saying Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was better-looking than David Cameron.

The inside gossip from the summit in Northern Ireland sparked frantic internet activity, with some wags pasting Mr Osborne’s face on to his namesake’s album covers.

The R&B star - whose hits include 1980s tune On the Wings Of Love - has also bizarrely suggested that they could sing a duet together.

The Chancellor attended the gathering to brief the leaders of the word’s wealthiest countries on plans to crack down on tax dodgers.

But according to The Sun and the Financial Times, he was visibly put out when Mr Obama called him “Jeffrey” three times.

The leader of the free world responded to his 90-minute presentation by saying: “Thanks for that, Jeffrey.”

Realising his mistake shortly afterwards, Mr Obama insisted: “I’m sorry, man. I must have confused you with my favourite R&B singer.”

Mr Osborne’s real name is Gideon, but he changed it to George as a teenager because it was “easier”.

Asked about the mix-up on Sky News, Jeffrey Osborne said: “I was really delighted, actually. I was really not aware that he was that much of a fan that he would call the Chancellor Jeffrey Osborne.

“Tell the Chancellor when I come over I will have to hook up with him and we will do a duet of On The Wings Of Love, or something.”

The two men are unlikely to have been confused before.

Jeffrey Osborne, from Rhode Island, is the son of a trumpeter and has had countless hit singles and albums in his illustrious career.

By contrast, the Chancellor is the son of Sir Peter Osborne, 17th baronet of Ballintaylor and Ballylemon, and heir to a high-class wallpaper firm.

Mr Clegg confirmed this morning that Mr Obama told him he was the “the better-looking half of the coalition” during the summit.

The “passing comment” was delivered as the Liberal Democrat leader joined a lunch on Tuesday.

In his weekly phone-in on LBC 97.3 radio, a bashful Mr Clegg said he did not think Mr Cameron had been in earshot.

“I should think he didn’t even hear it. It was in quite a scrum as we were going towards lunch,” he said.

“Any observer looking at the three of us would conclude that the person who looked the coolest was Mr Obama.”

Mr Cameron’s official spokesman made light of Mr Obama’s mix-up at a Westminster media briefing this morning, telling reporters: “A friend of mine who’s a Jeffrey Osborne fan tells me that one of his tracks is Call My Name.”

The spokesman declined to comment when asked whether the president’s failure to remember the Chancellor’s name reflected badly on the state of the special relationship between the US and UK, saying only that he was not present at the meeting and did not hear the remarks himself.

And he batted off the question of whether Mr Cameron accepted that Mr Clegg was the better-looking half of the coalition.

“I didn’t hear those remarks, but what I certainly did hear was all the leaders being wowed by the beauty and impressive nature of the Northern Irish countryside,” he said.