John McDonnell John McDonnell John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British Labour Party politician who was appointed the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in September 2015. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since the 1997 general election. He has served as chair of the Socialist Campaign Group in Parliament and the Labour Representation Committee, and was the chair of the Public Services Not Private Profit Group. He is also parliamentary convenor of the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group of eight left-wing trade unions representing over half a million workers. McDonnell attempted to stand for
Chancellor of the Exchequer Prescott. It reverted to the chancellor in 2007, then Alistair Darling. The chancellor traditionally carries his Budget speech to the House of Commons in a particular red Despatch Box. The Chancellor's red briefcase is identical to the briefcases used by all other government ministers (known as ministerial boxes or "Despatch Boxes") to transport their official papers but is better known because the chancellor traditionally displays the briefcase, containing the Budget speech, to the press in the morning before delivering the speech. The original Budget briefcase was first used by William Ewart Gladstone in 1853 and continued in use until 1965