From rescuing prostitutes to contracting gonorrhoea, there is a lot many of us do not know about Britain’s former Chancellors. If you are finding Alistair Darling a bit dull, take a look at some of the exploits of his illustrious predecessors…

William Gladstone (1852 – 1855)

Famously known as the GOM (Grand Old Man – or God’s Only Mistake, according to rival politician Benjamin Disraeli), Gladstone’s most infamous pastime was the rescue and rehabilitation of London prostitutes.

A staunch Christian, his “charitable” excursions involved walking the streets of London to encourage the prostitutes he encountered to change their ways. Sometimes he went to the women’s homes for talks long into the night… Quite what his wife made of this, who was mostly at Hawarden, their home in Wales, remains unclear.

As Darling battles with the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax, it may comfort him to know that Gladstone had similarly unsuccessful attempts at meddling with income tax – after unsuccessfully trying to abolish it, he ended up raising it because of the Crimean War.

Benjamin Disraeli (1858 – 1859)

Disraeli, a great favourite with Queen Victoria, was one of Britain’s most flamboyant Chancellors. His humble Jewish origins made it difficult for him to enter parliament, and indeed his maiden speech was a complete disaster as he was mercilessly heckled and eventually forced to sit down with the words “though I sit down now, the time will come when you will hear me.”

Disraeli’s early political career was also hampered by his controversial personal life. As a young man he travelled throughout Europe, where he contracted gonorrhoea – which may account for why he remained childless. After being implicated in a bizarre threesome with Lady Henrietta Sykes and Lord Lyndhurst on his return to England, he eventually married Mary Anne Wyndham Lewis, who was 12 years his senior and the widow of a colleague. Their marriage was very happy. In later years he teased her that he had only married for her money – to which she replied, “but if you had to do it again, you’d do it for love”.

George Ward Hunt - 1868

The vast George Ward Hunt arrived at the Commons in 1869 and opened the Budget box to find that he had left his speech at home. This is said to be the start of the tradition that, when a Chancellor leaves for the House of Commons on Budget Day, he shows the assembled crowd the box by holding it aloft.

At 21 stone, Hunt is the largest Chancellor on record. Disraeli had to reassure Queen Victoria before he was appointed that “he has the sagacity of the elephant as well as its form”. However this proved to be a rather short sighted comment, as Hunt only lasted just six months in the job.

Winston Churchill (1924 – 1929)

Although Churchill is celebrated for his leadership during World War II, his stint as Chancellor was altogether less successful. Churchill announced in his 1924 Budget that Britain would return to the Gold Standard – a decision that resulted in deflation, unemployment, and the miners’ strike. The return to the pre-war exchange increased costs to Britain’s coal and cotton industries by about 10 per cent.

These strikes led to the General Strike of 1926, when Churchill was reported to have suggested that machine guns be used on the striking miners. He later regarded the reintroduction of the Gold Standard as the greatest mistake of his life.

Denis Healey (1974 – 1979)

Another Chancellor with famously bushy eyebrows, Healy’s outspokenness frequently got him into trouble. His left-wing ideology of increasing benefits for the poor famously led to him saying that he would “Tax the rich until they squealed”.

Healey once got into a shouting match with rebel Labour backbenchers on the floor of the Commons during division; he later recalled, when asked if the exchange involved shouts of bastards and f***er, that “I questioned their parentage when they praised my virility…..”

In 1976 he attacked left-wing opponents of his policies as being “out of their tiny Chinese minds”, meaning to imply that they were Maoist, but offending the Chinese community.

Norman Lamont (1990 – 1993)

During the autumn of 1992 Lamont featured in a string of damaging press stories. The most notorious involved a sex therapist called Miss Whiplash - a tenant who he was accused of evicting from his Notting Hill flat using £4,700 of taxpayer’s money.

His defenders point out that the money had been formally approved to pay for legal proceedings, and there was never any suggestion that he had ever met his tenant, let alone personally made use of her services. Still, the damaging association had been made.

On Budget day, the briefcase that Lamont waved at photographers contained a bottle of whiskey, while the speech itself was carried in a plastic bag by his then aide, William Hague. “It would have been a major disaster if the box had fallen open,” Hague said later.

James Callaghan (1964 to 1967)

Like Darling, Callaghan was Chancellor at a difficult economic time. He once told a journalist: “I don’t think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos” – prompting the mocking headline in The Sun “Crisis? What Crisis?”

Callaghan’s immediate predecessor, Reggie Maudling, popped his head into the Chancellor’s study as he was leaving No 11 and told Callaghan: ‘Sorry to leave things in such a mess, old cock’. It is still unclear if Maudling was referring to the economy or to the state of Callaghan’s new home…

Hugh Dalton (1945–1947)

As Dalton was on his way to deliver his 1947 Budget, he made the mistake of making some off-the-cuff remarks to a journalist, telling him of the tax changes in the Budget. This was printed in the early edition of the evening papers before he had completed his speech, and whilst the stock market was still open. Dalton – who was under great strain, suffering psychosomatic boils – resigned the following day, with the Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, calling him a “perfect ass”.

Rab Butler (1951–1955)

David Lloyd George once described Butler as “playing the part of the imperturbable dunce who says nothing with an air of conviction.” In fact, Butler became a very competent and witty public speaker – at one dinner party he began a speech with the words: “An after-dinner speech should be like a lady’s dress - long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting.”.

In his 1953 Budget he announced that the sugar ration would be increased from 10oz to 12 oz a week to help the nation make celebratory cakes for the Queen’s coronation that year.

Jimmy Thomas

Although Thomas was never Chancellor, he was another cabinet minister forced to resign over Budget leaks. It was revealed that Thomas had been entertained by stock exchange speculators and had dropped heavy hints as to tax changes planned in the Budget. For example, while playing golf, he shouted “Tee up!”, which was taken as a suggestion that the duties on Tea were to rise.

By Lauren Thompson

With thanks to Richard Heffernan, Philip Cowley, Kevin Jefferys and Mark Garnett.