Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer used interchangeably with "economic spokesperson" by the Liberal Democrats as well as the main opposition party. This was a source of humour for one time Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who in 2005 played the two off against one another in Parliament, saying, "I, too, have a great deal of time for the shadow Chancellor who resides in Twickenham [<nowiki></nowiki>Vince Cable<nowiki></nowiki>], rather than the shadow Chancellor for the Conservative Party." The position of Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer is currently held by John McDonnell. Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the British Parliamentary
Exchequer of Pleas involved in the Exchequer of Pleas as a check on the Lord High Treasurer. He evolved out of the Lord Chancellor's clerk, or "clericus cancellari", who sat in the Exchequer and was responsible for correcting and sealing writs of summons, also holding the Exchequer's copy of the Great Seal. The earliest appearances of such a clerk in the records come from 1220, when a document was signed by Robert de Neville, "cancellarius". The Lord Chancellors of the time were clergymen with little interest in judicial or fiscal matters; as a result, the clerk became more independent from the Chancellor and,