The Chancellor’s Red Box: Why is it used for the Autumn Budget and what’s behind the tradition?

To stand in front of No.11 with a red box held high and cameras flashing is a rite of passage for British chancellors heading to the House of Commons to deliver their annual Budget statement.

Rachel Reeves has joined them before, stepping up to the despatch box to tell us all how much tax we’ll have to cough up over the next 12 months—including changes to the minimum wage, inheritance tax, national insurance, and the price of beer.

Property tax, capital gains tax, homes and National Insurance will all be discussed during Rachel Reeve’s second-ever budget as chancellor on Wednesday.

Here is everything you need to know about the history of the famous red box, and what to expect from this year’s announcement.

Why is a red box used for the budget?

The very first red box was made for William Gladstone in 1860 when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

But red boxes are traditionally used by government ministers to move official documents. King Charles also has his own red box – filled with daily documents for him to review.

Made of wood, covered in red leather and lined with black silk, the original Chancellor’s box was intended to carry the Budget statement from No.11 Downing Street to the House of Commons.

What’s happened to it since?

It’s certainly been used a lot, but not always.

James Callaghan was the first to dispense with the tradition, carrying what was dubbed a ‘vulgar brown valise’ in 1965.

In 1997, Gordon Brown commissioned a new one to replace the now quite tatty original.

The original is now in the Cabinet War Rooms. It had its final outing in 2010, when George Osborne – desperate to be photographed with this symbolic piece of history – received special dispensation from the National Archive for a single outing.

It was decidedly battered – bits of leather had broken off, with Treasury sources noting ‘it has been repaired with balsa wood’.

Embarassing moments with the red box

George Ward Hunt arrived at the Commons in 1869 and opened the box to realise he had left the speech back at base. We don’t know if there’s a connection, but he lasted just six months in the job.

Which is longer than Kwasi Kwarteng of course – who, despite his momentous fiscal statement in 2022, never actually got the chance to give a Budget – so no red box for him.

His ultra-Conservative tax-cutting mini-budget – the one that crashed the pound, crashed the bond market and almost crashed the UK insurance sector – was delivered from Downing Street to the Commons in a
blue folder.

Anything else that’s stowed among the black silk?

Norman Lamont is said to have put a bottle of whisky in his, with the speech itself carried in a plastic bag by his aide William Hague.

He’s not the only one. Alcoholic refreshment has most definitely been seen beside the dispatch box.

House of Commons rules forbid alcohol in the chamber apart from chancellors on Budget day. Tory chancellor Ken Clarke famously whipped out a glass of Glenfarclas scotch during his Budget speech in 1997.

With varying degrees of panache, other chancellors have declaimed their fiscal plans in the Commons with a white wine spritzer in hand (Nigel Lawson – no, we’re not sure what happened to the whisky, either), rum and milk (Hugh Dalton) and a good old G&T (Geoffrey Howe).

Back in the day, Gladstone took a sherry whipped together with beaten egg, while Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative chancellor between 1866 and 1868, opted for a brandy with water.

What does Reeves’ Budget have in store for us?

Questions about rumoured tax rises will be answered this week at this year’s Budget when it is delivered by Rachel Reeves on Wednesday.

The government needs more money to put Reeves on course to meet the ‘rules’ that she described as ‘non-negotiable’ after becoming Chancellor:

1. No borrowing to fund day-to-day public spending by the end of this parliament.
2. To decrease government debt as a share of national income by the end of this parliament.

Economic think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has suggested this means Reeves will need a ‘tightening’ of £22billion to restore the headroom she gave herself at this year’s Spring Forecast.

The IFS said Reeves will ‘almost certainly’ have to raise taxes in order to bring in funds to keep her economic targets.

On top of this, the Chancellor has said that she wanted to make sure the UK had ‘sufficient headroom’ to prepare for any future finance shocks at a gathering of business leaders in Saudi Arabia.

This suggests the £9.9billion buffer she passed in last year’s Budget was not enough, making it even more likely that we will see tax increases.

How long does the Budget take?

Benjamin Disraeli’s 1867 Budget was the shortest, at just 45 minutes. It doesn’t take long to deliver seismic news. Kwarteng’s fiscal statement lasted a little under 30 minutes. The longest Budget speech ever delivered was by William Gladstone on April 18, 1853, lasting four hours and 45 minutes.

No wonder he needed a drink. We suspect the rest of the house did, too, after that.

Can you get your own ministerial red box?

You can. The ‘iconic’ box is for sale from Foster and Son, a London-based bootmaker which was founded in 1840.

The case is made out of goatskin and has brass fittings and a lock, with a wooden frame and a hand-stitched leather handle.

It is being sold for the grand total of £4,050.

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