3

Why is the budget response just given by the Leader of the Opposition rather than the Shadow Chancellor, who sits next to him?

Improve this question
2
  • Can you exlpain the reason for why it wasn't expected for Ed Balls to do so? And what does the competence have to do with it (and what information would you envision in the answer to address that which isn't subjective opinion)?
    – user4012
    Commented Mar 20, 2013 at 18:02
  • @DVK - Re expectation, was my mistake, I didn't realize the LOTO normally does it. Re the importance of competence, coming across badly in this speech can damage the opposition electorally, which would give them a reason to change. Re subjective opinion - the overwhelming opinion in the media seems to be to be that Ed Balls fluffed his response to the most recent Autumn Statement, and that Ed Miliband performed well in his response today. It may be subjective, but it seems to be the majority opinion, I'm not sure how you'd define an objective measure for it.
    – DenverCoder9
    Commented Mar 20, 2013 at 19:20

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

From the website of the UK Parliament:

What happens after the Chancellor's Budget speech?

Traditionally, the Leader of the Opposition, rather than the Shadow Chancellor replies to the Budget speech.

So the answer is: tradition.

(See also HM Treasury's guide to the Budget.)

Improve this answer
1
  • This is also the case in Australia; the Treasurer gives the budget speech and the Leader of the Opposition gives the right of reply
    – KJ Tsanaktsidis
    Commented Mar 24, 2013 at 12:18

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .