Awkward! Nobody knows who the shadow chancellor is

“Errrr… I should know this one.”

Who is the current shadow chancellor? No, seriously.

It’s Chris Leslie! You know. This guy.

Since shake up at the general election, Ed Balls’ replacement hasn’t been in the news much.

Yesterday, Leslie said Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn was “plucking figures out of the air” – a comment that got coverage, but it seems people still didn’t know who he was.

Literally had no idea who Chris Leslie was until five minutes ago.

— David McGuinness (@ForwardSlashMe) August 3, 2015

My only reaction MP Chris Leslie criticisms of Jeremy #Corbyn was, ” Chris Leslie?. Never heard of him.”

— McGaucho (@McGaucho) August 3, 2015

Interesting that some bloke I’ve never heard of (Chris Leslie) is described as a top Labour figure. Where did he come from?

— Andy (@ely_peddler) August 3, 2015

 

These were far from the only tweets from people who didn’t know who the shadow chancellor was and we wanted to know if it extended beyond the digital world.

So, armed with an iPhone, we hit the streets of Westminster to quickly ask – could you tell us who the shadow chancellor is?

It turned out nobody, even the people who refused to be on camera, knew who the shadow chancellor is.

OK so for the benefit of most of the UK – here’s who Chris Leslie really is.

He was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, and studied politics and parliamentary studies at Leeds University.

He was elected to parliament when he was 24 in the 1997 general election and was Baby of the House – an unofficial title given to the youngest member of the House of Commons.

He served as a junior minister in Blair’s government but lost his seat by fewer than 500 votes in 2005. During his time out of parliament, he led Gordon Brown’s uncontested party leadership campaign in 2007 and then became director of think tank the New Local Government Network.

He won the Nottingham East seat in the 2010 general election and has served as shadow financial secretary to the Treasury and then chief secretary to the Treasury. After Ed Balls lost his seat this year, he was promoted to shadow chancellor.

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