Osborne slammed for spending £4,300 on new red Budget box

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Central Government and also in Local Government

Chancellor George Osborne has been criticised for spending £4,300 on a new red box for his Budget.

The box was commissioned by the National Archives after it was decided to retire the original budget bag used by chancellors since the time of William Gladstone.

Labour former minister Tom Watson used a Commons motion to say Mr Osborne could have used a cheaper alternative to the "elaborate" box.

Mr Osborne posed with the new box outside 11 Downing Street before his Budget statement in the Commons last week.

The motion expressed "serious concern at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's decision to purchase a new red dispatch box for this year's Budget at a cost of £4,300".

It went on: "The Chancellor of the Exchequer could have procured a cheaper alternative to the elaborate box he has chosen."

The motion calls on the Government to give "greater consideration to the amount it chooses to spend on similar items in future years".

The National Archives retired Gladstone's box after Mr Osborne gave it one final outing for his emergency budget last June.

The replacement budget box is expected to serve at least as long as the 150-year-old Gladstone box, according to the National Archives.

The new box was hand-made using traditional techniques and materials by a team of craftsmen including carpenters, bookbinders, and engravers.

It was intended to replicate the manufacture of Gladstone's box when it was first made in the mid-19th century but has one significant change, displaying the cipher "ER II" rather than "VR" to reflect the change of monarch.