Amid a revolving door of chancellors and the myriad budgets the country has picked apart this financial year, FT Adviser has put together a list of titillating tidbits about the twice-yearly budgeting spectacle.
With sweeping reforms to childcare funding and the scrapping of the lifetime allowance - marking the most significant pensions change since the 2014 Budget when former chancellor George Osborne announced the end of compulsory annuitisation at age 75, Jeremy Hunt's first Spring Budget has already stirred up a storm on social media.
But for those who like to delve a little more into the history of the Budget rather than the documents themselves, here are 10 fun facts:
Article continues after advert
- This was Hunt's 39th financial statement; he has already sat through an impressive 38 during his career, and this is the second he delivers himself. His first was in 2005, Gordon Brown’s (then called a “pre-budget report”), and in his first big role as culture secretary he witnessed George Osborne’s 2010 ‘emergency budget’, when control of fiscal forecasting passed to the new Office for Budget Responsibility.
- Hunt’s 61-minute-long speech pales in comparison to others: Gladstone delivered a close-to five hour speech in April 1853. Gladstone also holds the record for delivering more budget speeches than anyone, with 12 to his name.
- The last time the country lived through three budgets (barring the Truss-Kwarteng saga) was 2015, when a Conservative election victory and the end of a precarious coalition saw a summer budget join the ranks of the usual Spring and Autumn statements, and the National Living Wage was introduced.
- Hunt is the fourth chancellor to take up the post in the past year. When Rishi Sunak resigned in protest in 2022 it sparked a wobbly chain of succession including Nadhim Zahawi and Kwasi Kwarteng, who both left office in disgrace.
- The longest term as chancellor was Brown's, who spent 10 years and two months as head of the Treasury, making him an unusually dominant figure in British politics.
- Hunt did not use his licence to ‘tipple’. Delivering the budget is the only time alcohol is allowed in the House of Commons, though the last chancellor to avail himself of the budget tipple was Kenneth Clarke, who downed a whisky as he announced a 4 per cent drop in price for spirits. Gladstone, always one for making his presence known, chose sherry with beaten egg. Since Brown’s tenure most have preferred to stick with water.
- The word “budget” is closely related to the slang for "nonsense": from the Latin bulga, meaning a little pouch, the word "budget" began to be used in the 18th century as a word for “wallet”. It is related to the words “bulge” and “bilge” – the first soon came to refer to an irregular swelling, the second (originally the term for a foul-smelling part of a ship’s hull) to mean nonsense or rubbish.
- The iconic red budget box which chancellors use to carry their speech has been in use for a century. The original wooden box was hand-crafted for Gladstone around 1860, and Lord Callaghan was the first chancellor to break with tradition in 1965 when he used a new box.
- One chancellor, George Ward Hunt, forgot his speech at home. According to urban legend, he opened his despatch box at the Commons in 1869 only to realise it was empty. He only lasted six months. Still longer than Kwasi Kwarteng in 2022.
- Lastly, a sweetener to round off: Sir Geoffrey Howe, chancellor from 1979, named his dog Budget. He'd have made a fine match for 10 Downing Street's beloved Larry the Cat, who's been 'in office' since 2011.
