Labour’s first Budget for 15 years and the first ever by a female Chancellor saw Rachel Reeves speak for 77 minutes, longer than any Tory Chancellor managed between 2010 and 2024. In fairness it doesn’t take that long to say ‘we’re going to do over the poor again’.
Philip Hammond did manage 71 minutes in 2018, while the last Labour Budget speech made by Alistair Darling in March 2010 lasted 58 minutes.
These stats are from the Guardian but what 2024 journalism doesn’t have is historical research in depth. Labour’s first ever Budget speech was delivered by Philip Snowden on April 29th 1924 and he spoke for 105 minutes.
While it might be thought he didn’t have to bother with soundbites and social media brevity in fact he then published his speech as a pamphlet titled The Housewives Budget..
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