Chancellor of the Exchequer

The chancellor has considerable control over other departments as it is the Treasury which sets Departmental Expenditure Limits. The amount of power this gives to an individual chancellor depends on his personal forcefulness, his status within his party and his relationship with the prime minister. Gordon Brown, who became chancellor when Labour came into Government in 1997, had a large personal power base in the party. Perhaps as a result, Tony Blair chose to keep him in the same position throughout his ten years as prime minister; making Brown an unusually dominant figure and the longest-serving chancellor since the Reform Act of 1832.[5] This has strengthened a pre-existing trend towards the Chancellor occupying a clear second position among government ministers, elevated above his traditional peers, the Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary.

One part of the Chancellor's key roles involves the framing of the annual year budget. As of 2017, the first is the Autumn Budget, also known as Budget Day which forecasts government spending in the next financial year and also announces new financial measures. The second is a Spring Statement, also known as a "mini-Budget". Britain's tax year has retained the old Julian end of year: 24 March (Old Style) / 5 April (New Style, i.e. Gregorian). From 1993, the Budget was in spring, preceded by an annual autumn statement. This was then called Pre-Budget Report. The Autumn Statement usually took place in November or December. The 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012 and 2016 budgets were all delivered on a Wednesday, summarised in a speech to the House of Commons.

The budget is a state secret until the chancellor reveals it in his speech to Parliament. Hugh Dalton, on his way to giving the budget speech in 1947, inadvertently blurted out key details to a newspaper reporter, and they appeared in print before he made his speech. Dalton was actually forced to resign.[6]

Although the Bank of England is responsible for setting interest rates, the chancellor also plays an important part in the monetary policy structure. He sets the inflation target which the Bank must set interest rates to meet. Under the Bank of England Act 1998 the chancellor has the power of appointment of four out of nine members of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee – the so-called 'external' members. He also has a high level of influence over the appointment of the Bank's Governor and Deputy Governors, and has the right of consultation over the appointment of the two remaining MPC members from within the Bank.[7] The Act also provides that the Government has the power to give instructions to the Bank on interest rates for a limited period in extreme circumstances. This power has never been officially used.

At HM Treasury the chancellor is supported by a political team of four junior ministers and by permanent civil servants. The most important junior minister is the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, a member of the Cabinet, to whom the negotiations with other government departments on the details of government spending are delegated, followed by the Paymaster General, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. Whilst not continuously in use, there can also be appointed a Commercial Secretary to the Treasury and an Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. Two other officials are given the title of a Secretary to the Treasury, although neither is a government minister in the Treasury: the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury is the Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons; the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury is not a minister but the senior civil servant in the Treasury.

The chancellor is obliged to be a member of the Privy Council, and thus is styled the Right Honourable (Rt. Hon.). Because the House of Lords is excluded from financial matters by tradition confirmed by the Parliament Acts, the office is effectively limited to members of the House of Commons; apart from these occasions (see above) when the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench has acted as interim Chancellor the last peer to hold the office was Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington (at that time only a Baron, Lord Delamer) from 9 April 1689 to 18 March 1690. The chancellor holds the formerly independent office of Master of the Mint as a subsidiary office.[8]

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has no official London residence as such but since 1828 in his role as Second Lord of the Treasury he lives in the Second Lord's official residence, No. 11 Downing Street.[9] In 1997, the then First and Second Lords, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown respectively, swapped apartments, as the Chancellor's apartment in No. 11 was bigger and thus better suited to the needs of Blair (who had children living with him, including one born during his tenure) than Brown who was at that stage unmarried.

Dorneywood is the summer residence that is traditionally made available to the chancellor, though it is the prime minister who ultimately decides who may use it. Gordon Brown, on becoming chancellor in 1997, refused to use it and the house, which is set in 215 acres (87 ha)[10] of parkland, was allocated to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. It reverted to the chancellor in 2007, then Alistair Darling.[11]

Budget box or Gladstone box, c. 1860

The chancellor traditionally carries his Budget speech to the House of Commons in a particular red Despatch Box. The Chancellor's red briefcase is identical to the briefcases used by all other government ministers (known as ministerial boxes or "Despatch Boxes") to transport their official papers but is better known because the chancellor traditionally displays the briefcase, containing the Budget speech, to the press in the morning before delivering the speech.

The original Budget briefcase was first used by William Ewart Gladstone in 1853 and continued in use until 1965 when James Callaghan was the first chancellor to break with tradition when he used a newer box. Prior to Gladstone, a generic red Despatch Box of varying design and specification was used. The practice is said to have begun in the late 16th century, when Queen Elizabeth I's representative Francis Throckmorton presented the Spanish Ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, with a specially constructed red briefcase filled with black puddings.

In July 1997, Gordon Brown became the second chancellor to use a new box for the Budget. Made by industrial trainees at Babcock Rosyth Defence Ltd ship and submarine dockyard in Fife, the new box is made of yellow pine, with a brass handle and lock, covered in scarlet leather and embossed with the Royal cypher and crest and the Chancellor's title. In his first Budget, in March 2008, Alistair Darling reverted to using the original budget briefcase and his successor, George Osborne, continued this tradition for his first budget, before announcing that it would be retired due to its fragile condition.[12] The key to the original budget box has been lost.[13]

By tradition, the chancellor has been allowed to drink whatever he or she wishes while making the annual Budget Speech to parliament. This includes alcohol, which is otherwise banned under parliamentary rules.

Previous chancellors have opted for whisky (Kenneth Clarke), gin and tonic (Geoffrey Howe), brandy and water (Benjamin Disraeli and John Major), spritzer (Nigel Lawson) and sherry and beaten egg (William Gladstone).[14]

The recent chancellors, Philip Hammond, George Osborne, Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown,[15] opted for water. In fact Darling drank what was named "Standard Water" in reference to, and support of, the London Evening Standard newspaper's campaign to have plain tap water available in restaurants at no charge to customers.[16]

The chancellor has a robe of office,[17] similar to that of the Lord Chancellor (as seen in several of the portraits depicted below). In recent times, it has only regularly been worn at Coronations, but some chancellors (at least until the 1990s) have also worn it when attending the Trial of the Pyx as Master of the Mint. According to George Osborne, the robe (dating from Gladstone's time in office, and worn by the likes of Lloyd George and Churchill)[18] 'went missing' during Gordon Brown's time as chancellor.[19]

Although the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland had been united by the Acts of Union 1800 (39 & 40 Geo. III c. 67), the Exchequers of the two Kingdoms were not consolidated until 1817 under 56 Geo. III c. 98.[22][23] For the holders of the Irish office before this date, see Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland.

Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom[20]

Portrait		Name[lower-alpha 2] (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Party	Ministry	Monarch (Reign)	Ref.
		The Right Honourable Nicholas Vansittart FRS MP for Harwich (1766–1851)	12 July 1817	31 January 1823	Tory	Liverpool	George III (1760–1820) [1817 1]	[20]
							George IV (1820–1830)
		The Right Honourable Frederick John Robinson MP for Ripon (1782–1859)	31 January 1823	27 April 1827	Tory			[24]
		The Right Honourable George Canning FRS MP for Seaford (1770–1827)	27 April 1827	8 August 1827†	Tory	Canning (Canningite–Whig)		[25]
		The Right Honourable Charles Abbott 1st Baron Tenterden PCSL Lord Chief Justice (1762–1832) (interim)	8 August 1827	5 September 1827	Tory	Goderich		N/A
		The Right Honourable John Charles Herries MP for Harwich (1778–1855)	5 September 1827	26 January 1828	Tory			[26]
		The Right Honourable Henry Goulburn FRS MP for Armagh (1784–1856)	26 January 1828	22 November 1830	Tory	Wellington–Peel		[20]
							William IV (1830–1837)
		The Right Honourable John Spencer Viscount Althorp DLFRS MP for Northamptonshire → South Northamptonshire[1817 2] (1782–1845)	22 November 1830	14 November 1834	Whig	Grey		[20]
						Melbourne I
		The Right Honourable Thomas Denman 1st Baron Denman PC Lord Chief Justice (1779–1854) (interim)	14 November 1834	15 December 1834	Whig	Wellington Caretaker		N/A
		The Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel BtFRS MP for Tamworth (1788–1850)	15 December 1834	8 April 1835	Conservative	Peel I		[20]
		The Right Honourable Thomas Spring Rice MP for Cambridge (1790–1866)	18 April 1835	26 August 1839	Whig	Melbourne II		[20]
							Victoria (1837–1901)
		The Right Honourable Francis Baring MP for Portsmouth (1796–1866)	26 August 1839	30 August 1841	Whig			[20]
		The Right Honourable Henry Goulburn FRS MP for Cambridge University (1784–1856)	3 September 1841	27 June 1846	Conservative	Peel II		[20]
		The Right Honourable Sir Charles Wood Bt MP for Halifax (1800–1885)	6 July 1846	21 February 1852	Whig	Russell I		[20]
		The Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli MP for Buckinghamshire (1804–1881)	27 February 1852	17 December 1852	Conservative	Who? Who?		[20]
		The Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone MP for Oxford University (1809–1898)	28 December 1852	28 February 1855	Peelite	Aberdeen (Peelite–Whig)		[20]
		The Right Honourable Sir George Cornewall Lewis Bt MP for Radnor (1806–1863)	28 February 1855	21 February 1858	Whig	Palmerston I		[20]
		The Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli MP for Buckinghamshire (1804–1881)	26 February 1858	11 June 1859	Conservative	Derby–Disraeli II		[20]
		The Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone MP for Oxford University → South Lancashire[1817 3] (1809–1898)	18 June 1859	26 June 1866	Liberal	Palmerston II		[20]
						Russell II
		The Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli MP for Buckinghamshire (1804–1881)	6 July 1866	29 February 1868	Conservative	Derby–Disraeli III		[20]
		The Right Honourable George Ward Hunt MP for North Northamptonshire (1825–1877)	29 February 1868	1 December 1868	Conservative			[20]
		The Right Honourable Robert Lowe MP for London University (1811–1892)	9 December 1868	11 August 1873	Liberal	Gladstone I		[20]
		The Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone MP for Greenwich (1809–1898)	11 August 1873	17 February 1874	Liberal			[20]
		The Right Honourable Sir Stafford Northcote BtGCBFRS MP for North Devonshire (1818–1887)	21 February 1874	21 April 1880	Conservative	Disraeli II		[20]
		The Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone MP for Midlothian (1809–1898)	28 April 1880	16 December 1882	Liberal	Gladstone II		[20]
		The Right Honourable Hugh Childers MP for Pontefract (1827–1896)	16 December 1882	9 June 1885	Liberal			[20]
		The Right Honourable Sir Michael Hicks Beach BtDL MP for Bristol West (1837–1916)	24 June 1885	28 January 1886	Conservative	Salisbury I		[20]
		The Right Honourable Sir William Harcourt QC MP for Derby (1827–1904)	6 February 1886	20 July 1886	Liberal	Gladstone III		[20]
		The Right Honourable Lord Randolph Churchill MP for Paddington South (1849–1895)	3 August 1886	22 December 1886	Conservative	Salisbury II		[20]
		The Right Honourable George Goschen DL MP for St George Hanover Square (1831–1907)	14 January 1887	11 August 1892	Liberal Unionist			[20]
		The Right Honourable Sir William Harcourt QC MP for Derby (1827–1904)	18 August 1892	21 June 1895	Liberal	Gladstone IV		[20]
						Rosebery
		The Right Honourable Sir Michael Hicks Beach BtDL MP for Bristol West (1837–1916)	29 June 1895	11 August 1902	Conservative	Salisbury (III & IV) (Con.–Lib.U.)		[20]
							Edward VII (1901–1910)
		The Right Honourable Charles Ritchie MP for Croydon (1838–1906)	11 August 1902	9 October 1903	Conservative	Balfour		[20]
		The Right Honourable Austen Chamberlain MP for East Worcestershire (1863–1937)	9 October 1903	4 December 1905	Liberal Unionist			[20]
		The Right Honourable H. H. Asquith KC MP for East Fife (1852–1928)	10 December 1905	16 April 1908	Liberal	Campbell-Bannerman		[20]
		The Right Honourable David Lloyd George MP for Caernarvon Boroughs (1863–1945)	16 April 1908	25 May 1915	Liberal	Asquith (I–III)		[27]
							George V (1910–1936)
		The Right Honourable Reginald McKenna MP for North Monmouthshire (1863–1943)	25 May 1915	10 December 1916	Liberal	Asquith Coalition (Lib.–Con.–et al.)		[20]
		The Right Honourable Bonar Law MP for Bootle → Glasgow Central[1817 4] (1858–1923)	10 December 1916	10 January 1919	Conservative	Lloyd George (I & II)		[20]
		The Right Honourable Austen Chamberlain MP for Birmingham West (1863–1937)	10 January 1919	1 April 1921	Conservative			[20]
		The Right Honourable Sir Robert Horne GBEKC MP for Glasgow Hillhead (1871–1940)	1 April 1921	19 October 1922	Conservative			[20]
		The Right Honourable Stanley Baldwin JP MP for Bewdley (1867–1947)	27 October 1922	27 August 1923	Conservative	Law		[20]
​						Baldwin I
		The Right Honourable Neville Chamberlain MP for Birmingham Ladywood (1869–1940)	27 August 1923	22 January 1924	Conservative			[20]
		The Right Honourable Philip Snowden MP for Colne Valley (1864–1937)	22 January 1924	3 November 1924	Labour	MacDonald I		[20]
		The Right Honourable Winston Churchill CHTD MP for Epping (1874–1965)	6 November 1924	4 June 1929	Conservative	Baldwin II		[20]
		The Right Honourable Philip Snowden MP for Colne Valley (1864–1937)	7 June 1929	5 November 1931	Labour	MacDonald II		[20]
					National Labour	National I (N.Lab.–Con.–et al.)
		The Right Honourable Neville Chamberlain FRS MP for Birmingham Edgbaston (1869–1940)	5 November 1931	28 May 1937	Conservative	National II		[20]
​						National III (Con.–N.Lab.–et al.)
							Edward VIII (1936)
​							George VI (1936–1952)
		The Right Honourable Sir John Simon GCSIGCVOOBE MP for Spen Valley (1873–1954)	28 May 1937	12 May 1940	Liberal National	National IV		[20]
						Chamberlain War
		The Right Honourable Sir Kingsley Wood MP for Woolwich West (1881–1943)	12 May 1940	21 September 1943†	Conservative	Churchill War (All parties)		[20]
​		The Right Honourable Sir John Anderson GCBGCSIGCIEPC (Ire) MP for Combined Scottish Universities (1882–1958)	24 September 1943	26 July 1945	Independent (National)			[20]
						Churchill Caretaker (Con.–Lib.N.)
		The Right Honourable Hugh Dalton MP for Bishop Auckland (1887–1962)	27 July 1945	13 November 1947	Labour	Attlee (I & II)		[20]
		The Right Honourable Sir Stafford Cripps FRS MP for Bristol East → Bristol South East[1817 5] (1889–1952)	13 November 1947	19 October 1950	Labour			[20]
		The Right Honourable Hugh Gaitskell CBE MP for Leeds South (1906–1963)	19 October 1950	26 October 1951	Labour			[20]
		The Right Honourable Richard Austen Butler CH MP for Saffron Walden (1902–1982)	26 October 1951	20 December 1955	Conservative	Churchill III		[20]
							Elizabeth II (1952–present)
						Eden
		The Right Honourable Harold Macmillan MP for Bromley (1894–1986)	20 December 1955	13 January 1957	Conservative			[20]
		The Right Honourable Peter Thorneycroft MP for Monmouth (1909–1994)	13 January 1957	6 January 1958	Conservative	Macmillan (I & II)		[20]
		The Right Honourable Derick Heathcoat-Amory TD MP for Tiverton (1899–1981)	6 January 1958	27 July 1960	Conservative			[20]
		The Right Honourable Selwyn Lloyd CBEQC MP for Wirral (1904–1978)	27 July 1960	13 July 1962	Conservative			[20]
​		The Right Honourable Reginald Maudling MP for Barnet (1917–1979)	16 July 1962	16 October 1964	Conservative			[28]
						Douglas-Home
		The Right Honourable James Callaghan MP for Cardiff South East (1912–2005)	17 October 1964	29 November 1967	Labour	Wilson (I & II)		[29]
		The Right Honourable Roy Jenkins MP for Birmingham Stechford (1920–2003)	29 November 1967	19 June 1970	Labour			[30]
		The Right Honourable Iain Macleod MP for Enfield West (1913–1970)	20 June 1970	20 July 1970†	Conservative	Heath		[20]
		The Right Honourable Anthony Barber TD MP for Altrincham and Sale (1920–2005)	25 July 1970	4 March 1974	Conservative			[20]
		The Right Honourable Denis Healey MBE MP for Leeds East (1917–2015)	5 March 1974	4 May 1979	Labour	Wilson (III & IV)		[20]
						Callaghan
		The Right Honourable Sir Geoffrey Howe QC MP for East Surrey (1926–2015)	4 May 1979	11 June 1983	Conservative	Thatcher I		[20]
		The Right Honourable Nigel Lawson MP for Blaby (born 1932)	11 June 1983	26 October 1989	Conservative	Thatcher II		[20]
​						Thatcher III
		The Right Honourable John Major MP for Huntingdon (born 1943)	26 October 1989	28 November 1990	Conservative			[20]
		The Right Honourable Norman Lamont MP for Kingston-upon-Thames (born 1942)	28 November 1990	27 May 1993	Conservative	Major I		[20]
​						Major II
		The Right Honourable Kenneth Clarke QC MP for Rushcliffe (born 1940)	27 May 1993	2 May 1997	Conservative			[20]
		The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP for Dunfermline East → Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath[1817 6] (born 1951)	2 May 1997	27 June 2007	Labour	Blair (I–III)		[20]
		The Right Honourable Alistair Darling MP for Edinburgh South West (born 1953)	28 June 2007	11 May 2010	Labour	Brown		[31]
		The Right Honourable George Osborne MP for Tatton (born 1971)	12 May 2010	13 July 2016	Conservative	Cameron–Clegg (Con.–L.D.)		[32]
						Cameron II
		The Right Honourable Philip Hammond MP for Runnymede and Weybridge (born 1955)	13 July 2016	24 July 2019	Conservative	May I		[33]
						May II
		The Right Honourable Sajid Javid MP for Bromsgrove (born 1969)	24 July 2019	13 February 2020	Conservative	Johnson I		[34][35]
​						Johnson II
		The Right Honourable Rishi Sunak MP for Richmond (Yorks) (born 1980)	13 February 2020	Incumbent	Conservative			[36]