Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister

Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
Royal Arms as used by His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Craig Williams since 25 October 2022
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.

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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]

	Term of office		Political party
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 (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	Stanley Baldwin
Lauchlin MacNeill Weir	1929	1931	Labour	Ramsay MacDonald (II)
Robert Morrison	1929	1931	Labour	Ramsay MacDonald (II)
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	Stanley Baldwin
Lord Dunglass	1937	1940	Conservative	Neville Chamberlain
Brendan Bracken	1940	1941	Conservative	Winston Churchill
George Harvie-Watt	1941	1945	Conservative	Winston Churchill
Geoffrey de Freitas	1945	1946	Labour	Clement Attlee
Arthur Moyle	1946	1951	Labour	Clement Attlee
Christopher Soames	1952	1955	Conservative	Winston Churchill
Robert Carr	April 1955	December 1955	Conservative	Anthony Eden
Robert Allan	1955	1956	Conservative	Anthony Eden
Anthony Barber	1957	1959	Conservative	Harold Macmillan
Knox Cunningham	1959	1963	Ulster Unionist	Harold Macmillan
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	James Callaghan
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	John Major
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
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.

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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v t e Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Office
to Henry Campbell-Bannerman	Carr-Gomm 1906–1908
to H. H. Asquith	Howard 1908–1909 Lyell 1908–1915
to David Lloyd George	Barran 1916–1918 D. Davies 1916–1918 Sutherland 1916–1918, 1919–1920 Astor 1918 Sassoon 1920–1922
to Bonar Law	Davidson 1922–1923
to Stanley Baldwin	Herbert 1923–1924, 1924–1927 Rhys 1927–1929 Geoffery-Lloyd 1935 Dugdale 1935–1937
to Ramsay MacDonald	Weir 1924, 1929–1931 R. Morrison 1929–1931 Markham 1931–1932 Glyn 1931–1935 Worthington 1931–1935
to Neville Chamberlain	Douglas-Home 1937–1940
to Winston Churchill	Bracken 1940–1941 Harvie-Watt 1941–1945 Soames 1952–1955
to Clement Attlee	de Freitas 1945–1946 Moyle 1946–1951
to Anthony Eden	Carr 1955 Allan 1955–1956
to Harold Macmillan	Barber 1957–1959 K. Cunningham 1959–1963
to Alec Douglas-Home	Pearson 1963–1964
to Harold Wilson	Fernyhough 1964–1967 Shore 1965–1966 H. Davies 1967–1970 Varley 1968–1969 Hamling 1974–1975 Marks 1975 Tomlinson 1975–1976
to Edward Heath	Kitson 1970–1974
to James Callaghan	J. Cunningham 1976–1977 Stott 1977–1979
to Margaret Thatcher	Gow 1979–1983 Alison 1983–1987 Hamilton 1987–1988 Lennox-Boyd 1988–1990 P. Morrison 1990
to John Major	Bright 1990–1994 Ward 1994–1997
to Tony Blair	Coffey 1997–1998 Grocott 1997–2001 Hanson 2001–2005 Hill 2005–2007
to Gordon Brown	Austin 2007–2008 Smith 2007–2009 Trickett 2008–2010 Snelgrove 2009–2010
to David Cameron	Swayne 2010–2012 Gyimah 2012–2013 Williamson 2013–2016
to Theresa May	Hollingbery 2016–2018 Kennedy 2017–2019 Bowie 2018–2019
to Boris Johnson	Burghart 2019–2021 Heappey 2019 Harrison 2019–2021 Dines 2021–2022 Griffith 2021–2022 Duddridge 2022 Nici 2022 Morrissey 2022 Stafford 2022
to Liz Truss	Webb 2022
to Rishi Sunak	Williams 2022–present

This page was last edited on 22 April 2023, at 02:05