Chief Secretary to the Treasury

United Kingdom Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Darren Jones since 5 July 2024
His Majesty's Treasury
Style	The Right Honourable
Reports to	Chancellor of the Exchequer Prime Minister
Nominator	Prime Minister
Appointer	The Monarch (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's pleasure
Formation	8 October 1961
First holder	Henry Brooke
Salary	£121,326 per annum (2022)[1] (including £86,584 MP salary)[2]
Website	Official Website

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is a senior ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom and is the second most senior ministerial office in HM Treasury, after the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The office holder is always a full member or attendee of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

The office was created in 1961 to share the burden of representing HM Treasury with the chancellor.^{[citation needed]}

The minister is shadowed by the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury who sits on the Official Opposition frontbench.

History and responsibilities

Between 1961 and 2015, the holder of the office of Chief Secretary to the Treasury was of full cabinet rank. This formally made HM Treasury the only department to have more than one ministerial position of cabinet rank.^[3][4]

The office holder is responsible for public expenditure, including spending reviews.^[5]

List of chief secretaries to the treasury

Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Conservative       Labour       Liberal Democrat
Chief secretary			Term of office		Party	Ministry	Chancellor
		Henry Brooke MP for Hampstead[6]	9 October 1961	13 July 1962	Conservative	Macmillan (I & II)		Selwyn Lloyd
‍		John Boyd-Carpenter[7] MP for Kingston-upon-Thames	13 July 1962	16 October 1964	Conservative			Reginald Maudling
						Douglas-Home
		Jack Diamond[8] MP for Gloucester	20 October 1964	19 June 1970	Labour	Wilson (I & II)		James Callaghan
								Roy Jenkins
		Maurice Macmillan[9] MP for Farnham	23 June 1970	7 April 1972	Conservative	Heath		Iain Macleod
								Anthony Barber
		Patrick Jenkin[10] MP for Wanstead and Woodford	7 April 1972	8 January 1974	Conservative
		Tom Boardman[11] MP for Leicester South West	8 January 1974	4 March 1974	Conservative
		Joel Barnett[12] MP for Heywood and Royton	7 March 1974	4 May 1979	Labour	Wilson (III & IV)		Denis Healey
						Callaghan
		John Biffen[13] MP for Oswestry	5 May 1979	5 January 1981	Conservative	Thatcher I		Geoffrey Howe
		Leon Brittan[14] MP for Cleveland and Whitby	5 January 1981	11 June 1983	Conservative
		Peter Rees[15] MP for Dover	11 June 1983	2 September 1985	Conservative	Thatcher II		Nigel Lawson
		John MacGregor[16] MP for South Norfolk	2 September 1985	13 June 1987	Conservative
		John Major[17] MP for Huntingdon	13 June 1987	24 July 1989	Conservative	Thatcher III
		Norman Lamont[18] MP for Kingston-upon-Thames	24 July 1989	28 November 1990	Conservative			John Major
		David Mellor[19] MP for Putney	28 November 1990	10 April 1992	Conservative	Major I		Norman Lamont
		Michael Portillo[20] MP for Enfield Southgate	10 April 1992	20 July 1994	Conservative	Major II
								Kenneth Clarke
		Jonathan Aitken[21] MP for South Thanet	20 July 1994	5 July 1995	Conservative
		William Waldegrave[22] MP for Bristol West	5 July 1995	2 May 1997	Conservative
		Alistair Darling[23] MP for Edinburgh Central	3 May 1997	27 July 1998	Labour	Blair I		Gordon Brown
		Stephen Byers[24] MP for North Tyneside	27 July 1998	23 December 1998	Labour
		Alan Milburn[25] MP for Darlington	23 December 1998	11 October 1999	Labour
		Andrew Smith[26] MP for Oxford East	11 October 1999	29 May 2002	Labour
						Blair II
		Paul Boateng[27] MP for Brent South	29 May 2002	6 May 2005	Labour
		Des Browne[28] MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun	6 May 2005	5 May 2006	Labour	Blair III
		Stephen Timms[29] MP for East Ham	5 May 2006	28 June 2007	Labour
		Andy Burnham[30] MP for Leigh	28 June 2007	24 January 2008	Labour	Brown		Alistair Darling
		Yvette Cooper[31] MP for Pontefract and Castleford	24 January 2008	5 June 2009	Labour
		Liam Byrne[32] MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill	5 June 2009	11 May 2010	Labour
		David Laws[33] MP for Yeovil	12 May 2010	29 May 2010	Liberal Democrat	Cameron–Clegg (Con.–L.D.)		George Osborne
		Danny Alexander[34] MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey	29 May 2010	8 May 2015	Liberal Democrat
		Greg Hands[35] MP for Chelsea and Fulham	11 May 2015	14 July 2016	Conservative	Cameron II
		David Gauke[36] MP for South West Hertfordshire	14 July 2016	11 June 2017	Conservative	May I		Philip Hammond
		Liz Truss[37] MP for South West Norfolk	11 June 2017	24 July 2019	Conservative	May II
		Rishi Sunak[38] MP for Richmond (Yorks)	24 July 2019	13 February 2020	Conservative	Johnson I		Sajid Javid
​						Johnson II
		Steve Barclay[39] MP for North East Cambridgeshire	13 February 2020	15 September 2021	Conservative			Rishi Sunak
		Simon Clarke[40] MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland	15 September 2021	6 September 2022	Conservative
								Nadhim Zahawi
		Chris Philp[41] MP for Croydon South	6 September 2022	14 October 2022	Conservative	Truss		Kwasi Kwarteng
		Edward Argar[42] MP for Charnwood	14 October 2022	25 October 2022	Conservative			Jeremy Hunt
		John Glen[43] MP for Salisbury	25 October 2022	13 November 2023	Conservative	Sunak
		Laura Trott MP for Sevenoaks	13 November 2023	5 July 2024	Conservative
		Darren Jones MP for Bristol North West	5 July 2024	Incumbent	Labour	Starmer		Rachel Reeves

See also

• Secretary to the Treasury
• Financial Secretary to the Treasury
• Economic Secretary to the Treasury
• Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
• Paymaster General

References

1. "Salaries of Members of His Majesty's Government – Financial Year 2022–23" (PDF). 15 December 2022.
2. "Pay and expenses for MPs". parliament.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
3. F N Forman; N D J Baldwin (2007), Mastering British Politics (5th ed.), Palgrave Macmillan
4. W H Greenleaf (1983), The British Political Tradition: Volume III, Part One, Much Governed Nation, Routledge
5. "Chief Secretary to the Treasury – GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
6. "Mr Henry Brooke". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 6 October 2017.
7. "Mr John Boyd-Carpenter". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 6 October 2017.
8. "Mr Jack Diamond". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 6 October 2017.
9. "Rt Hon Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden". UK Parliament. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
10. "Lord Jenkin of Roding". UK Parliament. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
11. "Mr Thomas Boardman". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 6 October 2017.
12. "Lord Barnett". UK Parliament. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
13. "Rt Hon John Biffen". UK Parliament. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
14. "Lord Brittan of Spennithorne". UK Parliament. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
15. "Mr Peter Rees". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 6 October 2017.
16. "Lord MacGregor of Pulham Market". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
17. "Rt Hon John Major". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
18. "Lord Lamont of Lerwick". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
19. "Rt Hon David Mellor". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
20. "Rt Hon Michael Portillo". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
21. "Jonathan Aitken". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
22. "Lord Waldegrave of North Hill". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
23. "Lord Darling of Roulanish". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
24. "Mr Stephen Byers". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
25. "Mr Alan Milburn". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
26. "Rt Hon Andrew Smith". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
27. "Lord Boateng". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
28. "Lord Browne of Ladyton". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
29. "Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
30. "Rt Hon Andy Burnham". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
31. "Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
32. "Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
33. "Rt Hon David Laws". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
34. "Rt Hon Danny Alexander". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
35. "Rt Hon Greg Hands MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
36. "Rt Hon David Gauke MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
37. "Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
38. "Rishi Sunak MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
39. "Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
40. "The Rt Hon Simon Clarke MP". gov.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
41. "Chris Philp MP". gov.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
42. "UK treasury minister Philp to be replaced by Edward Argar". Reuters. 14 October 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
43. "John Glen appointed Chief Secretary to UK Treasury – statement". Reuters. 25 October 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2022.>