What is the Chancellor’s pink Budget field? Tradition behind iconic political briefcase

Being photographed brandishing a red Budget box on the steps of Number 11 Downing Street is a rite of passage for a Chancellor of the Exchequer.

This year it will be the turn of Labour’s Rachel Reeves, who is the first female politician to serve in the role dating back more than 800 years. The famous briefcase doesn’t date back quite as far as the role of its carrier – the statement holder was first transported in 1853 by William Gladstone, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer before becoming Prime Minister.

The Parliament website explains: “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.”

Made by Wickwar & Co out of wood and scarlet leather with a black satin lining, the original box was carried for the vast majority of chancellors for a century and a half – and in 1967, Labour’s James Callaghan carried what was dubbed a “vulgar brown valise” instead. In 1997 Labour’s Gordon Brown commissioned a new briefcase, with the original by then decidedly tatty.

Special dispensation was given to Conservative George Osbourne to carry the fragile political relic once more at the 2010 Autumn Statement, before the briefcase was permanently retired to the Cabinet War Rooms. In 2011, Conservative Philip Hammond used a red box commissioned by The National Archives and handcrafted by Barrow Hepburn & Gale.

The provider makes all briefcases for all government ministers to transport their confidential documents. “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.”

There are famous tales surrounding the carrying of the red Budget box, with Chancellor George Ward Hunt famously arriving 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.

And there are two theories on why the Budget 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.