Chancellor of the Exchequer
Minister for Finance in the United Kingdom and Head of Treasury
Key facts
- Style
- Chancellor (informal) The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth)
- Type
- Minister of the Crown
- Status
- Great Office of State
- Member of
- Cabinet Privy Council National Security Council
- Reports to
- First Lord of the Treasury ( Prime Minister of the United Kingdom )
- Residence
- 11 Downing Street
- Seat
- Westminster
- Nominator
- First Lord of the Treasury
- Appointer
- The Monarch , (on the advice of the Prime Minister )
- Term length
- At His Majesty's pleasure
- Formation
- c. 1221
- First holder
- Eustace of Fauconberg (in the Kingdom of England only)
~15 min read
Article
The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the chancellor is a high-ranking member of the British Cabinet.
Responsible for all economic and financial matters, the role is equivalent to that of a finance minister in other countries. The chancellor is now always Second Lord of the Treasury as one of at least six lords commissioners of the Treasury, responsible for executing the office of the treasurer of the exchequer – the others are the prime minister and Commons government whips. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was common for the prime minister also to serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer if he sat in the Commons; the last chancellor who was simultaneously prime minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer was Stanley Baldwin in 1923. Formerly, in cases when the chancellorship was vacant, the lord chief justice of the King's Bench would act as chancellor pro tempore. The last lord chief justice to serve in this way was Lord Denman in 1834.