Today marks a historic moment in British history as Rachel Reeves, the first female Chancellor, is due to deliver the Budget.
She will carry the iconic red Budget box which will contain the statements to be made.
The role of Chancellor of the Exchequer dates back 800 years but the famous red briefcase was first used in 1853 by William Gladstone.
In 1997 Labour’s Gordon Brown commissioned a new briefcase, as the original had become worn.
The original was used by Chancellors for a century and a half before being replaced.
On the Parliament website, the meaning of the Budget is explained: “The word Budget comes from an old French word ‘bougette’ meaning little bag. It was customary to bring the statement on financial policy to the House of Commons in a leather bag. The modern equivalent of the bag is the red despatch box or Budget box.”
In the 2010 Autumn Statement, George Osbourne carried the old fragile Budget briefcase for the last time before it was put into the Cabinet War Rooms permanently.
Conservative Philip Hammond used a red box commissioned by The National Archives and handcrafted by Barrow Hepburn & Gale in 2011.
The box is used to help ministers transport their confidential documents to the House of Commons to announce the new policies.
Briefcases for all government ministers to transport their confidential documents are made by the provider. “Ministers are permitted to use ordinary lockable briefcases to transport information which has been classified ‘Confidential’ or below,” the Government website states. “For information with a higher security level (such as ‘Secret’), they are required to use dispatch boxes, which offer a higher level of security, and which are usually red.
The red Budget box is steeped in history and there are many tales of Budget Day announcements throughout the years which involve the famous red briefcase.
George Ward Hunt famously arrived at the House of Commons in 1868 to realise he had forgotten to put his speech in it. Norman Lamont is said to have smuggled a bottle of whisky in the early 1990s, with his aide William Hague carrying his speech in a plastic bag.
There are also many theories as to why the box is red – one is that Queen Elizabeth I’s representative, Francis Throckmorton, gave the Spanish ambassador a specially constructed red briefcase filled with black pudding in the 16th century.
The other claims Prince Albert liked red, as it was the main colour of his family, the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha’s coat of arms.
