Chancellor of the Exchequer his duty to distribute as fairly as he can." The chancellor has considerable control over other departments as it is the Treasury which sets Departmental Expenditure Limits. The amount of power this gives to an individual chancellor depends on his personal forcefulness, his status within his party and his relationship with the prime minister. Gordon Brown, who became chancellor when Labour came into Government in 1997, had a large personal power base in the party. Perhaps as a result, Tony Blair chose to keep him in the same position throughout his ten years as prime minister; making Brown an unusually
John Smith (Chancellor of the Exchequer) he was a Commissioner for the Union with Scotland, and was the last Speaker of the House of Commons of England and after the Acts of Union 1707, became the first Speaker of the new House of Commons of Great Britain. At the 1708 general election Smith was returned unopposed as MP for Andover, and subsequently gave up his position as Speaker, when he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer again on 22 April 1708. He ceased to be Chancellor on the 11 August 1710 on the dissolution of Parliament and was returned unopposed for Andover at the 1710 general