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Formerly, the Liberal Democrats frontbench team did not use the term 'Shadow Cabinet', with a number of front bench spokespeople covering areas (eg. Defence and Foreign Affairs) rather than directly shadowing specific Cabinet portfolios. Under Charles Kennedy 's leadership, and with the increase in numbers of Liberal Democrat MPs, the senior members of the front bench team referred to themselves as a Shadow Cabinet, although (in UK politics) this has conventionally been a title used to describe senior members of the front bench team of the largest opposition party in the House Of Commons . Following Charles Kennedy's decision to change the nomenclature, the UK Parliament's website now uses the term 'Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet' and does not use the old term 'Frontbench Team'. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} However, this is not without contention and is disputed by the Conservative Party . This was noticeable enough that Gordon Brown made a joke about it in the House of Commons: ''"The House of Commons is in the unique position of having two shadow Chancellors: one sits in Folkestone and the other in Truro. It is rather like the mediaeval papacy: two hon. Members claim to hold the position of shadow Chancellor. I shall organise a play-off during the year." Hansard Source '' This is a theme to which Gordon Brown has returned recently, comparing and contrasting his frosty relationship with the official Shadow Chancellor George Osborne with his apparently warm relationship with Vince Cable (whom he refers to as 'the Shadow Chancellor from Twickenham'). The official Shadow Cabinet (currently formed by the Conservative Party) receives support for its official function which are denied to the Liberal Democrats. Salaries are paid to the Opposition Leader and the Chief Whips. Moreover, the official Shadow Cabinet has the exclusive use of facilities within Parliament (including the use of a Shadow Cabinet block of offices, Shadow Cabinet meeting rooms and a suite of offices for the Opposition Leader). There is a great deal of resistance within Parliament to conferring 'Shadow' titles to the third party. Following his election as the new leader on 2 March 2006, Campbell announced plans for a reshuffle and spoke of his two defeated opponents, Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes , having senior positions in the party. In the reshuffle, Huhne was promoted to the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet, while Hughes' retained his position as Shadow Attorney General and as Party President (determined by a ballot of the membership and not at the leader's discretion). Hughes also took on the Constitutional Affairs brief. LIBERAL DEMOCRAT FRONTBENCH TEAM Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet
It should be noted that while these are the positions defined by the Liberal Democrats, many sections of the media, and political opponents continue to refer to members of the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet as spokespeople (for example Defence spokesperson rather than Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary) Other members of the House of Commons Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team
Liberal Democrat House of Lords Frontbench Team Liberal Democrat peers are also organised into teams broadly corresponding to the areas of Government departments.
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