First Secretary of State

First Secretary of State
Royal Arms of Her Majesty's Government
Incumbent Vacant since 15 September 2021
Government of the United Kingdom Office of the Prime Minister
Style	Mr/Madam Secretary (informal) The Right Honourable (formal) His/Her Excellency (diplomatic)
Status	Deputy to the head of government (if a Deputy Prime Minister is not appointed)
Member of	Cabinet Privy Council National Security Council
Reports to	Prime Minister
Residence	None, may use Grace and favour residences
Seat	Westminster, London
Nominator	Prime Minister
Appointer	The Crown (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	No fixed term
Inaugural holder	Rab Butler
Formation	13 July 1962; 59 years ago (1962-07-13)
Salary	£153,022 per annum (including £81,932 MP salary)[1]
Website	Official website

Political offices in the UK government
Prime Minister Deputy Prime Minister / First Secretary Treasury ministers Secretary of State Minister of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Parliamentary Private Secretary Lord Chancellor Leader of the House of Commons Leader of the House of Lords Whips Law officers Sinecures
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The office of First Secretary of State was created for Rab Butler.

The 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 holder is the highest ranking and senior most secretary of state and is usually the second in command to the prime minister if a deputy prime minister is not appointed.

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 successive holders. The office is currently vacant, having most recently been held by Dominic Raab between 24 July 2019 and 15 September 2021.^[4]

The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow first secretary of state.

Constitutional position[]

Like the Deputy Prime Minister, the First Secretary enjoys no right of automatic succession to the office of Prime Minister.^[5] 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."^[6]

The office temporarily enjoyed some greater constitutional footing between when it was incorporated as a corporation sole in 2002^[7] and having all of its remaining functions transferred in 2008.^[8] During most of this time, John Prescott was the First Secretary.

History[]

In 1962, Rab 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.^[9] The office gave Butler ministerial superiority over the rest of the Cabinet^[10] and indicated that he was second-in-command.^[11] 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."^[11]

Later, Michael Heseltine and John Prescott held the office alongside being Deputy Prime Minister.^[12] 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 William Hague was First Secretary.^[12]

Responsibilities[]

The office is currently listed on the gov.uk website as bringing no additional responsibilities.^[13]

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.^[14] 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",^[15] but in certain circumstances the office "...can assume acute importance and real power" and it may yet become an office of substance.^[16]

List of First Secretaries of State[]

First Secretary of State

Portrait		Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Other ministerial offices	Party	Ministry	Ref.
		R. A. Butler[17] MP for Saffron Walden (1902–1982)	13 July 1962	18 October 1963		Conservative	Macmillan II	[18]
		George Brown MP for Belper (1914–1985)	16 October 1964	11 August 1966	Secretary of State for Economic Affairs	Labour	Wilson (I & II)	[18]
		Michael Stewart MP for Fulham (1906–1990)	11 August 1966	6 April 1968	Secretary of State for Economic Affairs[a] Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs[b]	Labour		[18]
		Barbara Castle MP for Blackburn (1910–2002)	6 April 1968	19 June 1970	Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity	Labour		[18]
		Michael Heseltine MP for Henley (born 1933)	20 July 1995	2 May 1997	Deputy Prime Minister	Conservative	Major II	[19]
		John Prescott MP for Kingston upon Hull East (born 1938)	8 June 2001	27 June 2007	Deputy Prime Minister[c]	Labour	Blair II	[20]
							Blair III
		Peter Mandelson Baron Mandelson (born 1953)	5 June 2009	11 May 2010	Lord President of the Council Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills President of the Board of Trade	Labour	Brown
		William Hague MP for Richmond (Yorks) (born 1961)	12 May 2010	8 May 2015	Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs[d] Leader of the House of Commons[e]	Conservative	Cameron–Clegg (Con.–L.D.)	[21]
		George Osborne MP for Tatton (born 1971)	8 May 2015	13 July 2016	Chancellor of the Exchequer	Conservative	Cameron II	[22]
		Damian Green MP for Ashford (born 1956)	11 June 2017	20 December 2017	Minister for the Cabinet Office	Conservative	May II	[23]
		Dominic Raab MP for Esher and Walton (born 1974)	24 July 2019	15 September 2021	Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs[f] Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs[g]	Conservative	Johnson (I & II)	[4]

Timeline[]

See also[]

• Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Notes[]

References[]