First Secretary of State

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United Kingdom
First Secretary of State of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent
Vacant
since 15 September 2021
Government of the United Kingdom
StyleThe Right Honourable (formal)
His/Her Excellency (diplomatic)
Member ofPage Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
Reports toPrime Minister
ResidenceNone, may use grace and favour residences
NominatorPrime Minister
AppointerThe King (on the advice of the prime minister)
Term lengthAt His Majesty's pleasure
Inaugural holderRab Butler
Formation13 July 1962; 64 years ago (1962-07-13)
Salary£153,022 per annum
(including £81,932 MP salary)[1] (2019)

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Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Sidebar/configuration' not found. Page Template:Hlist/styles.css has no content.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Sidebar/configuration' not found.First Secretary of State is an office that is sometimes held by a minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The office indicates seniority,[2] including over all other secretaries of state.[3] The office is not always in use, so there have sometimes been extended gaps between holders.

The office frequently serves the same political functions as that of Deputy Prime Minister, and while there have been occasions when the two titles have existed at the same time, Prime Ministers historically have tended to designate one or the other (or neither). As of May 2026 the office is vacant, last having been held by Dominic Raab from 2019 to 2021, which ended when the title was swapped for Deputy Prime Minister in 2022.

Constitutional position

Like the deputy prime minister, the first secretary enjoys no right of automatic succession to the office of Prime Minister.[4] When Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit on 6 April 2020, after contracting COVID-19, First Secretary Dominic Raab was asked "to deputise for him where necessary."[5]

The office temporarily enjoyed some greater constitutional footing between when it was incorporated as a corporation sole in 2002[6] and having all of its remaining functions transferred in 2008.[7] During most of this time, John Prescott was First Secretary.

History

In 1962, R.A. Butler was the first person to be appointed to the office, in part to avoid earlier royal objections to the office of Deputy Prime Minister.[8] The office gave Butler ministerial superiority over the rest of the Cabinet[9] and indicated that he was second-in-command.[10] Harold Wilson appointed three people to the office between 1964 and 1970, but it has been noted by Anthony Seldon et al. that the office may have caught on "more as an ego-massager than for functional reasons."[10]

Later, Michael Heseltine and John Prescott held the office and also that of Deputy Prime Minister.[11] The two offices have only existed concurrently with different holders in David Cameron's coalition government, in which Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg was appointed Deputy Prime Minister while Conservative William Hague was First Secretary.[11]

Responsibilities

The office is currently listed on the gov.uk website as bringing no additional responsibilities.[12] However, Lord Norton says that there are two benefits to a prime minister in appointing a first secretary: firstly, it leaves a senior minister free to perform correlation and co-ordination and to chair committees and, secondly, it enables the prime minister to send a signal as to the status of the holder.[13] Stephen Thornton and Jonathan Kirkup have said that "the Office of First Secretary of State is only as important as the person holding that office is perceived to be important",[14] but in certain circumstances the office "can assume acute importance and real power" and it may yet become an office of substance.[15]

List of First Secretaries of State

First Secretary of State Term of office Other ministerial offices Party Ministry
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Rab Butler in 1963 (3x4 cropped).jpg R. A. Butler
MP for Saffron Walden[16][17] 		13 July
1962 		18 October
1963 		Conservative Template:Party shading/Conservative (UK) |Macmillan II
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:GeorgeBrown1967 (cropped).jpg George Brown
MP for Belper[17] 		16 October
1964 		11 August
1966 		Labour rowspan=3 Template:Party shading/Labour |Wilson
(I & II)
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Michael Stewart (1966).jpg Michael Stewart
MP for Fulham[17] 		11 August
1966 		6 April
1968 		Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:1657535162180 OP002 CASTLE 001 MOBILE.jpg Barbara Castle
MP for Blackburn[17] 		6 April
1968 		19 June
1970 		Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Lord Heseltine (6969083278).jpg Michael Heseltine
MP for Henley[18] 		20 July
1995 		2 May
1997 		Conservative Template:Party shading/Conservative (UK) |Major II
rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:John Prescott official portrait (cropped) (fixed).png John Prescott
MP for Kingston upon Hull East[19] 		8 June
2001 		27 June
2007 		Labour Template:Party shading/Labour |Blair II
Template:Party shading/Labour |Blair III
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Peter Mandelson at Politics of Climate Change 3.jpg Peter Mandelson, Baron Mandelson 5 June
2009 		11 May
2010 		Labour Template:Party shading/Labour |Brown
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:William Hague (2010).jpg William Hague
MP for Richmond (Yorks)[20] 		12 May
2010 		8 May
2015 		Conservative Template:Party shading/Coalition (UK) |Cameron–Clegg
(Con.–L.D.)
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Osborne 2015.jpg George Osborne
MP for Tatton[21] 		8 May
2015 		13 July
2016 		Conservative Template:Party shading/Conservative (UK) |Cameron II
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Damian Green Cabinet Office (cropped).jpg Damian Green
MP for Ashford[22] 		11 June
2017 		20 December
2017 		Conservative Template:Party shading/Conservative (UK) |May II
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Official portrait of Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP crop 2.jpg Dominic Raab
MP for Esher and Walton[23] 		24 July
2019 		15 September
2021 		Conservative Template:Party shading/Conservative (UK) |Johnson
(I & II)

Timeline

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from: 13/07/1962 till: 18/10/1963 color:con text:"Rab Butler"
bar:Brown
from: 16/10/1964 till: 11/08/1966 color:lab text:"George Brown"
bar:Stewart
from: 11/08/1966 till: 06/04/1968 color:lab text:"Michael Stewart"
bar:Castle
from: 06/04/1968 till: 19/06/1970 color:lab text:"Barbara Castle"
bar:Heseltine
from: 20/07/1995 till: 02/05/1997 color:con text:"Michael Heseltine"
bar:Prescott
from: 08/06/2001 till: 27/07/2007 color:lab text:"John Prescott"
bar:Mandelson
from: 05/06/2009 till: 11/05/2010 color:lab text:"Peter Mandelson"
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from: 12/05/2010 till: 08/05/2015 color:con text:"William Hague"
bar:Osborne
from: 08/05/2015 till: 13/07/2016 color:con text:"George Osborne"
bar:Green
from: 11/06/2017 till: 20/12/2017 color:con text:"Damian Green"
bar:Raab
from: 24/07/2019 till: 15/09/2021 color:con text:"Dominic Raab"

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See also

Notes

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  1. ^ Served as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs until August 1967
  2. ^ Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from March 1968
  3. ^ from May 1997
  4. ^ between 29 May 2002 and 5 May 2006
  5. ^ Served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs until July 2014
  6. ^ Served as Leader of the House of Commons from July 2014
  7. ^ Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs until September 2020
  8. ^ Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs from September 2020

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Salaries of Members of Her Majesty's Government from 1st April 2019" (PDF). 1 April 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 July 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Cabinet Manual" (PDF). gov.uk. 2010. 3.12. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Watt, Nicholas (8 May 2015). "George Osborne made first secretary of state in cabinet reshuffle". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Norton, Philip (2020). Governing Britain: Parliament, Ministers and Our Ambiguous Constitution. Manchester University Press. p. 152. ISBN 9-781526-145451.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Statement from Downing Street: 6 April 2020". gov.uk. 6 April 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  6. ^ The Transfer of Functions (Transport, Local Government and the Regions) Order 2002, art 3(1).
  7. ^ The Transfer of Functions (Miscellaneous) Order 2008, art 7
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Brazier, Rodney (2020). Choosing a Prime Minister: The Transfer of Power in Britain. Oxford University Press. pp. 74–5. ISBN 978-0-19-260307-4.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Brazier, Rodney (2020). Choosing a Prime Minister: The Transfer of Power in Britain. Oxford University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-19-260307-4.
  10. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Seldon, Anthony; Meakin, Jonathan; Thoms, Illias (2021). The Impossible Office? The History of the British Prime Minister. Cambridge University Press. p. 171. ISBN 9781316515327.
  11. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Brazier, Rodney (2020). Choosing a Prime Minister: The Transfer of Power in Britain. Oxford University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-19-260307-4.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."First Secretary of State". gov.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Norton, Philip (2020). Governing Britain: Parliament, Ministers and Our Ambiguous Constitution. Manchester University Press. pp. 149–50. ISBN 9-781526-145451.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Thornton, Stephen (2023). "From Rab to Raab: The Construction of the Office of First Secretary of State". Parliamentary Affairs. 2021: 186–210. doi:10.1093/pa/gsab038.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Thornton, Stephen; Kirkup, Jonathan (2023). "From Rab to Raab: The Construction of the Office of First Secretary of State". Parliamentary Affairs. 2021: 186–210. doi:10.1093/pa/gsab038.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Howard, Anthony (February 7, 2013). RAB: The Life of R.A. Butler. A&C Black. ISBN 9781448210824.
  17. ^ a b c d David Butler and Gareth Butler, British Political Facts 1900–1994 (7th edn, Macmillan 1994) 62.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Lord Heseltine". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Lord Prescott". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Lord Hague of Richmond". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Rt Hon George Osborne". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Rt Hon Damian Green MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dominic Raab". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 28 April 2022.

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