Penny-pinching Chancellor Jeremy Hunt spent £2,700 on new crimson field for Budget

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt shelled out nearly £2,700 for a shiny new red box for his last budget speech, it can be revealed.

Treasury documents show the penny-pinching Tory upgraded his ministerial baggage with a fresh leather-bound box from official manufacturer Barrow, Hepburn and Gale. A second bill for £500 – around the cost of a refurbishment or repair to a ministerial briefcase – also appears in the document.

Red Boxes are used by ministers to carry around secret government documents. And the Chancellor famously holds his aloft for a photoshoot outside Number 11 Downing Street on the morning of the Budget.

Barrow, Hepburn and Gale says some of the boxes still in use by ministers were originally supplied more than 30 years ago. The firm, established in the 1700s, also made replica boxes used onscreen in The Crown and Young Victoria.

Their slogan reads: “Throughout the ages in peace and in war, Barrow, Hepburn and Gale has played its part.”

The boxes, which offer a higher level of security than a standard briefcase, can cost as much as £4,000 to purchase. In July 2022, the Department for Transport, which was run by Grant Shapps at the time, shelled out the eye-watering sum of £634.80 to fix a jammed lock on one of the official briefcases.