First Secretary of State

Template:Short description Template:Infobox official post Template:Uk-gov-positions Template:PoliticsUKFirst 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,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> including over all other secretaries of state.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The office is not always in use, so there have sometimes been extended gaps between successive 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). The office is currently vacant. The most recent person to hold the title was Dominic Raab from 2019 to 2021, which ended when the title was swapped for Deputy Prime Minister instead in 2022.

Constitutional position

Like the deputy prime minister, the first secretary enjoys no right of automatic succession to the office of Prime Minister.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, 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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The office temporarily enjoyed some greater constitutional footing between when it was incorporated as a corporation sole in 2002<ref>The Transfer of Functions (Transport, Local Government and the Regions) Order 2002, art 3(1).</ref> and having all of its remaining functions transferred in 2008.<ref>The Transfer of Functions (Miscellaneous) Order 2008, art 7</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The office gave Butler ministerial superiority over the rest of the Cabinet<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and indicated that he was second-in-command.<ref name=":02">Template:Cite book</ref> 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."<ref name=":02" />

Later, Michael Heseltine and John Prescott held the office alongside being Deputy Prime Minister.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The two offices have only existed concurrently with different holders in David Cameron's coalition government, wherein Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg was appointed Deputy Prime Minister while Conservative William Hague was First Secretary.<ref name=":0" />

Responsibilities

The office is currently listed on the gov.uk website as bringing no additional responsibilities.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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",<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> but in certain circumstances the office "can assume acute importance and real power" and it may yet become an office of substance.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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 Template:Small<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Butler&Butler">David Butler and Gareth Butler, British Political Facts 1900–1994 (7th edn, Macmillan 1994) 62.</ref>	Template:Small 1962	Template:Small 1963		Conservative	Template:Party shading/Conservative (UK) |Macmillan II
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:GeorgeBrown1967 (cropped).jpg	George Brown Template:Small<ref name="Butler&Butler"/>	Template:Small 1964	Template:Small 1966	Secretary of State for Economic Affairs	Labour	rowspan=3 Template:Party shading/Labour |[[Labour government, 1964–1970|Wilson Template:Small]]
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Michael Stewart (1966).jpg	Michael Stewart Template:Small<ref name="Butler&Butler"/>	Template:Small 1966	Template:Small 1968	Secretary of State for Economic AffairsTemplate:Efn Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth AffairsTemplate:Efn	Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:1657535162180 OP002 CASTLE 001 MOBILE.jpg	Barbara Castle Template:Small<ref name="Butler&Butler"/>	Template:Small 1968	Template:Small 1970	Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity	Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Portrait of Michael Heseltine in 1994 (cropped).jpg	Michael Heseltine Template:Small<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Small 1995	Template:Small 1997	Deputy Prime Minister	Conservative	Template:Party shading/Conservative (UK) |Major II
rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:John Prescott official portrait (cropped).jpg	John Prescott Template:Small<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Small 2001	Template:Small 2007	Deputy Prime MinisterTemplate:Efn	Labour	Template:Party shading/Labour |Blair II
Template:Party shading/Labour |Blair III
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Peter Mandelson, Member of the EC (cropped).jpg	The Lord Mandelson	Template:Small 2009	Template:Small 2010	Lord President of the Council Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills President of the Board of Trade	Labour	Template:Party shading/Labour |Brown
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:William Hague (2010).jpg	William Hague Template:Small<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Small 2010	Template:Small 2015	Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth AffairsTemplate:Efn Leader of the House of CommonsTemplate:Efn	Conservative	Template:Party shading/Coalition (UK) |Cameron–Clegg Template:Small
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Osborne 2015.jpg	George Osborne Template:Small<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Small 2015	Template:Small 2016	Chancellor of the Exchequer	Conservative	Template:Party shading/Conservative (UK) |Cameron II
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Rt Hon Damian Green MP crop 2.jpg	Damian Green Template:Small<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Small 2017	[[Second May ministry#Changes|Template:Small 2017]]	Minister for the Cabinet Office	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 Template:Small<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Small 2019	Template:Small 2021	Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth AffairsTemplate:Efn Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development AffairsTemplate:Efn	Conservative	Template:Party shading/Conservative (UK) |Johnson Template:Small

Timeline

<timeline> ImageSize = width:1050 height:auto barincrement:15 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:60 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late

Define $today = {{#time:d/m/Y}}

DateFormat=dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1960 till:31/12/{{#time:Y|+1}} TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/1960 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:01/01/1960

Colors =

 id:con    value:rgb(0.094,0.525,0.8)       legend:Conservative
 id:lab    value:rgb(0.937,0.094,0.129) legend:Labour

Legend = columns:2 left:125 top:28 columnwidth:100

TextData =

 pos:(25,30) textcolor:black fontsize:M
 text:"Political parties:"

BarData =

 bar:Butler
 bar:Brown
 bar:Stewart
 bar:Castle
 bar:Heseltine
 bar:Prescott
 bar:Mandelson
 bar:Hague
 bar:Osborne
 bar:Green
 bar:Raab

PlotData=

 width:5 align:left fontsize:s shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

bar:Butler
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"
bar:Hague
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"

</timeline>

See also

• Ministerial ranking - the "pecking order" or relative importance of senior ministers in the UK government.
• Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a similar position, sometimes used as an alternative to the First Secretary