Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

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The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the British Parliamentary system is the member of the Shadow Cabinet who is responsible for shadowing the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The title is in the gift of the Leader of the Opposition but is informal. The Shadow Chancellor has no constitutional role.

The name for the position has a mixed history. It is used to designate the lead economic spokesman for the Opposition, although some Shadow Cabinets have not used the term (the Thatcher Shadow Cabinet, for example)(see The Conservative Party Campaign Guide 1979). As a consequence of this and of the rise of the Liberal Democrats (who now claim the title themselves) the term is used interchangeably with 'Economic Spokesman' for both parties.

This confusion has been a source of humour for the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who has played the two off against one another in Parliament.

I, too, have a great deal of time for the shadow Chancellor who resides in Twickenham, rather than the shadow Chancellor for the Conservative party.[1]

The current Shadow Chancellor is George Osborne MP. However, Vince Cable also claims the title for the Liberal Democrats, a trend started under his predecessor, Matthew Taylor.

Name	Term	Party
Oliver Stanley	1945 – 1950	Conservative
R. A. Butler	1950 – 1951	Conservative
Hugh Gaitskell	1951 – 1956	Labour
Harold Wilson	1956 – 1961	Labour
James Callaghan	1961 – 1964	Labour
Reginald Maudling	1964 – 1965	Conservative
Edward Heath	1965 – 1965	Conservative
Iain Macleod	1965 – 1970	Conservative
Roy Jenkins	1970 – 1972	Labour
Denis Healey	1972 – 1974	Labour
Robert Carr	1974 – 1975	Conservative
Sir Geoffrey Howe	1975 – 1979	Conservative
Denis Healey	1979 – 1980	Labour
Peter Shore	1980 – 1983	Labour
Roy Hattersley	1983 – 1987	Labour
John Smith	1987 – 1992	Labour
Gordon Brown	1992 – 1997	Labour
Kenneth Clarke	1997 – 1997	Conservative
Peter Lilley	1997 – 1998	Conservative
Francis Maude	1998 – 2000	Conservative
Michael Portillo	2000 – 2001	Conservative
Michael Howard	2001 – 2003	Conservative
Oliver Letwin	2003 – 2005	Conservative
George Osborne	2005 –	Conservative