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
Chancellor of the Exchequer serve in this way was Lord Denman in 1834. The chancellor is the third-oldest major state office in English and British history; it originally carried responsibility for the Exchequer, the medieval English institution for the collection and auditing of royal revenues which dates from the Anglo-Saxon period and survived the Norman conquest of England. The earliest surviving records which are the results of the exchequer's audit, date from 1129–30 under King Henry I and show continuity from previous years. The chancellor controlled monetary policy as well as fiscal policy until 1997, when the Bank of England was granted independent control