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8. That’s why, by tradition, the Chair of Ways and Means takes the chair for the Chancellor’s Budget. The Budget’s tax measures still come in on “Ways and Means Resolutions” - a reminder of the role’s historic constitutional roots.

7. The Committee of Ways and Means was abolished in 1967, and responsibility for taxation passed fully to the Chancellor. But the title of Chair of Ways and Means survived alongside the role of the Commons’ principal Deputy Speaker.

6. Since 1853, the Chair of Ways and Means has formally deputised for the Speaker while also retaining the historic duties linked to finance.

5. The first to hold the role of Chair of Ways and Means was Richard Hampden, a Whig MP. Soon the post was formalised with the same MP re-elected each session and, from 1800, receiving a salary.

4. Why “Ways and Means”? From 1641 to 1967 it was the Committee of Ways and Means that was responsible for initiating taxation proposals or “a charge upon the people” — the “ways” (methods) and “means” (money).

3. To protect their independence, MPs insisted that debates on the Monarchs financial demands be taken in a Committee of the whole House, chaired not by the Speaker but by a trusted senior backbencher - their “own man”. That chair became the Chairman of Ways and Means.

2. Speakers historically had an awkward job: representing the Commons to the King, & the King to the Commons. Many MPs saw the Speaker as the “King’s spy”. That tension made MPs wary, especially over taxation. Hence the need for a separate chair on financial matters.

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