The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, MP, current Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British cabinet minister responsible for all financial matters. Often simply called The Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister for Finance or Secretary of the Treasury in other jurisdictions. The position is considered one of the four great offices of state and in recent times has come to be the most powerful office in British politics after the Prime Ministership.
The Chancellor is the third oldest major state office in English and United Kingdom history, one which originally carried responsibility for the Exchequer, the medieval English institution for the collection of royal revenues. Until recently, the Chancellor controlled monetary policy as well as fiscal policy, but this ended when the Bank of England was granted independent control of its interest rates in 1997. He (all Chancellors to date have been men) also has oversight of public spending across Government departments, and is generally second only to the Prime Minister in political power.
One of the Chancellor's key roles involves the framing of the annual "Budget", which is summarised in a speech to the House of Commons. Traditionally the budget speech was delivered on a Tuesday (although not always) in March, as Britain's tax year follows the Julian Calendar. From 1993 the Budget was preceded by an annual 'Autumn Statement', now called the Pre-Budget Report, which forecasts government spending in the next year and usually takes place in November or December. This preview of the next year's Budget is also referred to as the "mini-Budget". The 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006 Budgets were delivered on a Wednesday.
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. [1] 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 used.
In addition to his specific powers, the Chancellor may have 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 with his party and his relationship with the Prime Minister. The present Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has a large personal power base in the party. Perhaps as a result, Tony Blair has chosen to keep him in his job since taking office in 1997, making Brown an unusually dominant figure. This situation has strengthened a pre-existing trend towards the Chancellorship moving into a clear second among government offices, elevated above its traditional peers, the Foreign Secretaryship and Home Secretaryship.
The holder of the office of Chancellor is ex-officioSecond Lord of the Treasury. As Second Lord, his official residence is Number 11 Downing Street in London, next door to the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury (a post usually though not always held by the Prime Minister), who resides in 10 Downing Street. While in the past both houses were private residences, today they serve as interlinked offices, with the occupant living in a small apartment made from attic rooms previously resided in by servants.
In 1997, the current 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) than Brown who was at that stage unmarried. So though No. 11 is still officially Brown's residence, he actually resides in the apartment in the attic of No. 10, and Blair — though officially residing in No. 10 — actually lives in the attic apartment of No. 11.
A previous Chancellor, Robert Lowe, described the office in the following terms in the House of Commons, on 11 April1870: "The Chancellor of the Exchequer is a man whose duties make him more or less of a taxing machine. He is intrusted with a certain amount of misery which it is his duty to distribute as fairly as he can."
The original 'Budget Box'
The Chancellor traditionally carries his Budget speech to the House of Commons in a particular red briefcase. The Chancellor's red briefcase is identical to the briefcases used by all other government ministers (known as ministeral boxes or "red 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 Gladstone in 1860 and continued in use until 1965 when James Callaghan was the first Chancellor to break with tradition when he used a newer box.
In July 1997, Chancellor 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 initials and crest and the Chancellor's title.
