COMETH THE HOUR...

PHILIP Hammond was on his feet for one hour and two minutes during the Budget statement – only the third time in a decade that the speech has lasted more than an hour.

For his second Budget as chancellor, Mr Hammond added six minutes to the statement he delivered in March 2017.

Just two other Budget addresses in recent times have been longer, and both were delivered by George Osborne: July 2015 (one hour five minutes) and March 2016 (one hour four minutes).

By contrast, Gordon Brown’s final Budget speech in March 2007 lasted just 49 minutes – the shortest since 1979.

Mr Hammond’s speech is easily eclipsed by the mammoth Budget statements given throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, which regularly approached the two-hour mark.

The longest since 1979 was delivered by Sir Geoffrey Howe in March 1980, when the Tory MP spoke for one hour 59 minutes, prompting wry thanks from the then-leader of the opposition, James Callaghan, who said: “The ordeal of addressing the House for two hours on a Budget speech is one which has not been shared by many”.

The longest Budget speech in history is thought to be from William Gladstone, pictured, in April 1853, when he spoke for a record four hours and 45 minutes.

In April 1867, his great political rival Benjamin Disraeli broke the record for the shortest Budget address, speaking for just 45 minutes.