Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey, [1] CH , MBE , PC , FRSL (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970; he remains the longest-serving Defence Secretary to date. He was a Member of Parliament from 1952 to 1992, and was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983. To the public at large, Healey became well known for his bushy eyebrows, his avuncular manner and his creative turns of phrase.

Jonathan Church is impressed with Reeves, who worked as an economist at the Bank of England and at the British embassy in Washington DC before winning Leeds West for Labour in 2010. He thinks she would make a credible chancellor – serious, informed and with a previous life outside politics. “I’m not a great fan of career politicians,” he says. Healey received early education at Bradford Grammar School. In 1936 he won an exhibition scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, to read Greats. He there became involved in Labour politics, although he was not active in the Oxford Union Society. Also while at Oxford, Healey joined the Communist Party in 1937 during the Great Purge, [9] but left in 1940 after the Fall of France. Richards, Steve (2021). The Prime Ministers We Never Had; Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn. London: Atlantic Books. pp.100–101. ISBN 978-1-83895-241-9. The Treasury faced urgent problems. Half of the wartime economy had been devoted to mobilizing soldiers, warplanes, bombs and munitions; an urgent transition to a peacetime budget was necessary, while minimizing inflation. Financial aid through Lend Lease from the United States was abruptly and unexpectedly terminated in September 1945, and new loans from the United States and Canada were essential to keep living conditions tolerable. In the long run, Labour was committed to nationalization of industry and national planning of the economy, to more taxation of the rich and less of the poor, and to expanding the welfare state and creating free medical services for everyone. [7] Dalton in 1962 Hookham, Mark (3 December 2008). "Denis Healey: 'The best Prime Minister we never had' ". Yorkshire Evening Post. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008 . Retrieved 26 April 2010.Jeremy Hunt has been the incumbent chancellor since 14 October 2022, being appointed by Liz Truss and retained in the role by Rishi Sunak. as Germany and Italy were potential enemies of Britain and Franco was their ally, it was in Britain's interest that Franco should not win the Spanish Civil War. It was on this proposition rather than any extravagant eulogy of the Spanish Government that I based most of my public references to this most tragic struggle. [9] The shadow chancellor and I are directed to two chairs in the church hall for the interview. Above us is the pulpit and a sign saying Salvation Army Kettering Corps number 584. In front of us, the Bible is opened at Jeremiah 32, promising the restoration of Jerusalem. I wouldn’t put it past Labour’s spinmeisters to have chosen this text for us.

Rachel Reeves holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from New College, Oxford. Her husband, Nicholas Joicey, was formerly a speech writer to Gordon Brown, when he was the actual Chancellor of the Exchequer. Really? “Yeah!” she says with a nervous giggle. Why did she go into politics, then? “Yeah, I know!” Now the laugh is more raucous. “A bit late now!” When the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition following the 2010 general election, Hunt was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (combining the roles of leading the Department for Culture, Media and Sport with that of Minister for the Olympics). He was consequently appointed a Privy Councillor on 13 May 2010. [32] Richards, Steve (2021). The Prime Ministers We Never Had; Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn. London: Atlantic Books. pp.116–119. ISBN 978-1-83895-241-9. Healey stood a second time for the leadership of the Labour Party in November 1980, but narrowly lost to Michael Foot. Foot immediately chose Healey as his Deputy Leader, but after the Labour Party agreed a series of changes to the rules governing leadership elections, Tony Benn launched a challenge to Healey for the role; the election was bitterly contested throughout most of 1981, and Healey was able to beat the challenge by less than 1%. Standing down as Deputy Leader after Labour's landslide defeat at the 1983 election, Healey remained in the Shadow Cabinet until 1987, and entered the House of Lords soon after his retirement from Parliament in 1992. Healey died in 2015 at the age of 98, having become the oldest sitting member of the House of Lords, and the last surviving member of Harold Wilson's first government formed in 1964.Since 1827, the chancellor has always simultaneously held the office of second lord of the Treasury when that person has not also been the prime minister. Following university, Hunt worked for two years as a management consultant at OC&C Strategy Consultants and then became an English language teacher in Japan. [19] On his return to Britain, he tried his hand at a number of different entrepreneurial business ventures, with three failed start-ups including an attempt to export marmalade to Japan. [20] [21] In 1991, Hunt co-founded a public relations agency named Profile PR specialising in IT with Mike Elms, a childhood friend. [19] Hunt and Elms later sold their interest in Profile PR to concentrate on directory publishing. Healey was an amateur photographer for many years; [65] he also enjoyed music, painting and reading crime fiction. He sometimes played popular piano pieces at public events. [66] In a May 2012 interview for The Daily Telegraph, Healey reported that he was swimming 20 lengths a day in his outdoor pool. [67] Healey was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project. [68] [69]