Osborne Says Iconic Red Budget Box Empty ‘For Years,’ Keys Lost

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the iconic red box held aloft by his predecessors for decades just before delivering the annual budget has been empty for years because it is locked and the keys are missing.

“I’ll let you into a terrible truth, which is that the budget box is locked and the keys were lost years ago,” Osborne said at a lunch with political journalists in London yesterday. “So when the chancellor stands up with that old budget box, there is nothing in it and there hasn’t been for years.”