Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 20 Rhagfyr 1973.
Mr Denis Howell
, Birmingham Small Heath
12:00,
20 Rhagfyr 1973
I hesitate to accuse the Chancellor of the exchequer of deliberately misleading the House, but if he were accidentaly misleading the House by saying that there was to be no increase on the rates when the day before the Secretary of State for the Environment had said that they would go up by 7p, the right hon. Gentleman is even a bigger fool than I thought. Either he is a knave or he is a fool. If you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, rule authoritatively that he is not a knave, I must accept that he is a fool. He must be one or the other.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The Deputy speaker is in charge of proceedings of the House of Commons in the absence of the Speaker.
The deputy speaker's formal title is Chairman of Ways and Means, one of whose functions is to preside over the House of Commons when it is in a Committee of the Whole House.
The deputy speaker also presides over the Budget.
