Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister | |
---|---|
Royal Arms as used by His Majesty's Government | |
Incumbent Vacant since 25 June 2024 | |
Prime Minister's Office | |
Appointer | Prime Minister |
Formation | 1906 |
First holder | Hubert Carr-Gomm |
Website | 10 Downing Street |
The Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister is a Parliamentary Private Secretary serving the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The holder of the office is widely viewed as the Prime Minister's "eyes and ears" on the backbenches, serving as a liaison to the Prime Minister's parliamentary party.[1][2] The Parliamentary Private Secretary is also responsible for meeting with members of Parliament when the Prime Minister is unavailable, and accompanying the Prime Minister to, and assisting them with preparations for Prime Minister's Questions.[2][3] They usually sit directly behind the Prime Minister during question time.
Role
The Parliamentary Private Secretary can become a highly powerful and significant role; Bonar Law's Parliamentary Private Secretary, J.C.C. Davidson acted in effect as his chief of staff.[3] Margaret Thatcher's downfall from the Conservative Party leadership in 1990 is attributed by many[4][5][6] to the actions of her Parliamentary Private Secretary, Peter Morrison, in failing to accurately count votes amongst Conservative backbenchers. Some Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister go on to hold higher office; Alec Douglas-Home served as Parliamentary Private Secretary under Neville Chamberlain and later went on to serve as Prime Minister in his own right.[7]
There can be multiple Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister at a given time. Many Prime Ministers have used this tactic during their premierships; former Prime Minister David Cameron only employed one Parliamentary Private Secretary at a time during his tenure in office, but he appointed Sir John Hayes as a minister without portfolio with responsibility for the Parliamentary Conservative Party, a job typically reserved for the Parliamentary Private Secretary.[8][9]
Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister (1906–present)
The following table lists Parliamentary Private Secretaries to successive Prime Ministers from 1906.[10]
Name | Portrait | Term of office | Political party | Prime Minister | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hubert Carr-Gomm | 1906 | 1908 | Liberal | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman | |||
Geoffrey Howard | 1908 | 1909 | Liberal | H. H. Asquith (I) | |||
Charles Henry Lyell | 1908 | 1915 | Liberal | ||||
H. H. Asquith (Coalition) | |||||||
Sir John Barran, 2nd Baronet | 1916 | 1918 | Liberal | David Lloyd George (Coalition) | |||
David Davies | 1916 | 1918 | Liberal | ||||
William Sutherland | 1916[dubious – discuss] | 1918 | Liberal | ||||
Waldorf Astor | 1918 | Conservative | |||||
William Sutherland | 1919 | 1920 | Liberal | ||||
Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt | 1920 | 1922 | Conservative | ||||
J.C.C. Davidson | 1922 | 1923 | Conservative | Bonar Law | |||
Sidney Herbert | 1923 | 1924 | Conservative | Stanley Baldwin | |||
Lauchlin MacNeill Weir | 1924 | Labour | Ramsay MacDonald | ||||
Sidney Herbert | 1924 | 1927 | Conservative | Stanley Baldwin | |||
Charles Rhys | 1927 | 1929 | Conservative | ||||
Lauchlin MacNeill Weir | 1929 | 1931 | Labour | Ramsay MacDonald (II) | |||
Robert Morrison | 1929 | 1931 | Labour | ||||
Frank Markham | 1931 | 1932 | National Labour | Ramsay MacDonald (First National ministry · Second National ministry) | |||
Ralph Glyn | 1931 | 1935 | Conservative | ||||
John Vigers Worthington | 1931 | 1935 | National Labour | ||||
Geoffrey Lloyd | 1935 | Conservative | Stanley Baldwin | ||||
Thomas Dugdale | 1935 | 1937 | Conservative | ||||
Lord Dunglass | 1937 | 1940 | Conservative | Neville Chamberlain | |||
Brendan Bracken | 1940 | 1941 | Conservative | Winston Churchill | |||
George Harvie-Watt | 1941 | 1945 | Conservative | ||||
Geoffrey de Freitas | 1945 | 1946 | Labour | Clement Attlee | |||
Arthur Moyle | 1946 | 1951 | Labour | ||||
Christopher Soames | 1952 | 1955 | Conservative | Winston Churchill | |||
Robert Carr | April 1955 | December 1955 | Conservative | Anthony Eden | |||
Robert Allan | 1955 | 1956 | Conservative | ||||
Anthony Barber | 1957 | 1959 | Conservative | Harold Macmillan | |||
Knox Cunningham | 1959 | 1963 | Ulster Unionist | ||||
Francis Pearson | November 1963 | October 1964 | Conservative | Sir Alec Douglas-Home | |||
Ernest Fernyhough | 1964 | 1967 | Labour | Harold Wilson | |||
Peter Shore | 1965 | 1966 | Labour | ||||
Harold Davies | January 1967 | June 1970 | Labour | ||||
Eric Varley | November 1968 | October 1969 | Labour | ||||
Timothy Kitson | 1970 | 1974 | Conservative | Edward Heath | |||
Bill Hamling | 1974 | 1975 | Labour | Harold Wilson | |||
Kenneth Marks | April 1975 | December 1975 | Labour | ||||
John Tomlinson | 1975 | 1976 | Labour Co-op | ||||
Jack Cunningham | 1976 | 1977 | Labour | James Callaghan | |||
Roger Stott | 1977 | 1979 | Labour | ||||
Ian Gow | 1979 | 1983 | Conservative | Margaret Thatcher | |||
Michael Alison | 1983 | 1987 | Conservative | ||||
Archie Hamilton | 1987 | 1988 | Conservative | ||||
Mark Lennox-Boyd | 1988 | 1990 | Conservative | ||||
Peter Morrison | 1990 | 1990 | Conservative | ||||
Graham Bright | 1990 | 1994 | Conservative | John Major | |||
John Devereux Ward | 1994 | 2 May 1997 | Conservative | ||||
Ann Coffey | 2 May 1997 | 1998 | Labour | Tony Blair | |||
Bruce Grocott | 2 May 1997 | 8 June 2001 | Labour | ||||
David Hanson | 8 June 2001 | 6 May 2005 | Labour | ||||
Keith Hill | 6 May 2005 | 27 June 2007 | Labour | ||||
Ian Austin | 27 June 2007 | 4 October 2008 | Labour | Gordon Brown | |||
Angela Smith | 27 June 2007 | 28 June 2009 | Labour | ||||
Jon Trickett | 4 October 2008 | 12 May 2010 | Labour | ||||
Anne Snelgrove | 8 June 2009 | 12 May 2010 | Labour | ||||
Desmond Swayne | 12 May 2010 | 4 September 2012 | Conservative | David Cameron (Coalition) | |||
Sam Gyimah | 4 September 2012 | 7 October 2013 | Conservative | ||||
Gavin Williamson | 7 October 2013 | 13 July 2016 | Conservative | ||||
David Cameron (II) | |||||||
George Hollingbery | 17 July 2016 | 21 June 2018 | Conservative | Theresa May | |||
Seema Kennedy | 27 June 2017 | 4 April 2019 | Conservative | ||||
Andrew Bowie | 29 December 2018 | 24 July 2019 | Conservative | ||||
Alex Burghart | 25 July 2019 | 17 September 2021 | Conservative | Boris Johnson | |||
James Heappey | 4 August 2019 | 16 December 2019 | Conservative | ||||
Trudy Harrison | 16 December 2019 | 17 September 2021 | Conservative | ||||
Andrew Griffith | 17 September 2021 | 3 February 2022 | Conservative | ||||
Sarah Dines | 17 September 2021 | 8 July 2022 | Conservative | ||||
Joy Morrissey[11] | 8 February 2022 | 8 July 2022 | Conservative | ||||
Lia Nici[12] | 8 February 2022 | 8 July 2022 | Conservative | ||||
James Duddridge[13] | 8 February 2022 | 8 July 2022 | Conservative | ||||
Alexander Stafford[14] | 8 July 2022 | 6 September 2022 | Conservative | ||||
Suzanne Webb | 6 September 2022 | 25 October 2022 | Conservative | Liz Truss | |||
Craig Williams | 25 October 2022 | Present | Conservative | Rishi Sunak |
In popular culture
The final instalment of Michael Dobbs's and the BBC's House of Cards trilogy, The Final Cut, includes a character, Claire Carlsen, who serves as Prime Minister Francis Urquhart's Parliamentary Private Secretary, ultimately betraying him by attempting to leak documents about his service in the British Army.
See also
- Downing Street Chief of Staff
- Parliamentary Private Secretary
- Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Cabinet Office
- Prime Minister's Office
- Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
References
- ^ Shell, Donald (1995). Churchill to Major: The British Prime Ministership Since 1945. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 9781563246357. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ a b Barnett, Hilare (2002). Constitutional & Administrative Law. Cavendish Publishing Ltd. p. 322. ISBN 9781843144755.
- ^ a b Kavanagh, Dennis (2013). The Powers Behind the Prime Minister: The Hidden Influence of Number Ten. HarperCollins UK. ISBN 9780007392636.
- ^ Cosgrave, Patrick (15 July 1995). "Obituary: Sir Peter Morrison". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
- ^ Hoggart, Simon (16 October 2013). "Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality by Jonathan Aitken – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
- ^ Clark, Alan (1993). Diary. 354: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "PIL: Parliamentary Private Secretaries to Prime Ministers 1906 – present – Commons Library Standard Note". Retrieved 22 October 2013.
- ^ Kirkup, James (28 March 2013). "John Hayes goes to No 10. Is David Cameron admitting to fear of his own party?". London: The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
- ^ Sparrow, Andrew (28 March 2013). "Cameron moves John Hayes in mini reshuffle: Politics live blog". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
- ^ Priddy, Sarah (20 March 2021). "Parliamentary Private Secretaries to Prime Ministers since 1906". Research Briefings. House of Commons Library.
- ^ "Joy Morrissey 'honoured' to be appointed Boris Johnson's Parliamentary Private Secretary". Bucks Free Press. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ "Lia Nici appointed Boris' PPS after hailing him 'best' in generations". GrimsbyLive. 8 February 2022. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ "James appointed PPS to the Prime Minister". James Duddridge. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ "Alex Stafford PPS to the Prime Minister".
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