Economic Secretary to the Treasury

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury is a junior ministerial post in His Majesty's Treasury, ranked below the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Paymaster General and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and alongside the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. It ranks at Parliamentary Secretary level and the holder does not attend Cabinet. Since 2014, the holder has also generally held the position of City Minister. It is shadowed by the Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

History

The office was created in November 1947. In 1961, the Economic Secretary became junior to the new office of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, which held a seat in cabinet.

Following the establishment of the Department of Economic Affairs in 1964, the Economic Secretary, Anthony Crosland, transferred to become Minister of State in that department. The post of Economic Secretary to the Treasury was abolished on 22 December 1964. Although the Department of Economic Affairs closed in 1969, the Treasury post was not re-established until 11 November 1981.

From April 2014 to September 2022, and since October 2022, the office of Economic Secretary to the Treasury has been held concurrently with the portfolio of 'City Minister'.

Responsibilities

The Economic Secretary is responsible, though more senior ministers share in decision-making, for the answering of written and verbal parliamentary questions and for the devising of regulations, orders and legislation in various matters. Until September 2022, these matters included banking and finance, including banks, insurance, personal savings, financial regulation, and foreign exchange reserves. He or she was also involved in taxation as it impacted on these areas, such as tax on savings and pensions, and Insurance Premium Tax. In addition, the Economic Secretary, until September 2002, advised on economic policy and continues to work with other Treasury ministers on the Comprehensive Spending Review and finance bills.

Economic Secretaries to the Treasury, 1947–present

Colour key (for political parties):
Template:Legend2 Template:Legend2

Economic Secretary			Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister		Chancellor
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Douglas Jay	13 November 1947	2 March 1950	Labour	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Attlee	Cripps
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	John Edwards	19 October 1950	26 October 1951	Labour	Gaitskell
Office not in use			26 October 1951	24 November 1952		rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Churchill	Butler
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Blank.png	Reginald Maudling	24 November 1952	7 April 1955	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Sir Edward Boyle	7 April 1955	11 November 1956	Conservative	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Eden	Macmillan
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Derek Walker-Smith	11 November 1956	16 January 1957	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Nigel Birch	16 January 1957	6 January 1958	Conservative	rowspan=6 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Macmillan	Thorneycroft
Office not in use			6 January 1958	23 October 1958		H-Amory
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Blank.png	Frederick Erroll	23 October 1958	22 October 1959	Conservative
rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Anthony Barber	22 October 1959	16 July 1962	Conservative
Lloyd
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Edward du Cann	16 July 1962	21 October 1963	Conservative	Maudling
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Maurice Macmillan	21 October 1963	16 October 1964	Conservative		style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	D-Home
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Charles-Anthony-Raven-Crosland (cropped).jpg	Anthony Crosland	19 October 1964	22 December 1964	Labour	rowspan=3 style="background-color:Template:Party color"|	Wilson	Callaghan
Office not in use			22 December 1964	11 November 1981
						Jenkins
						rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color"|	Heath	Macleod
						Barber
						style="background-color:Template:Party color"|	Wilson	Healey
						style="background-color:Template:Party color"|	Callaghan
						rowspan=8 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Thatcher	Howe
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Jock Bruce-Gardyne	11 November 1981	13 June 1983	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Mr John Moore M.P. addressing the Annual LSE Society Dinner, 5th June, 1985.jpg	John Moore	13 June 1983	19 October 1983	Conservative	Lawson
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Ian Stewart	19 October 1983	11 June 1987	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Lord Lilley crop 2.jpg	Peter Lilley	11 June 1987	24 July 1989	Conservative
rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	Richard Ryder	24 July 1989	14 July 1990	Conservative
Major
	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:3by2white.svg	John Maples	23 July 1990	14 April 1992	Conservative
rowspan=4 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Major						Lamont
rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |		File:3by2white.svg	Anthony Nelson	14 April 1992	6 July 1995	Conservative
Clarke
		style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Angela Knight 2015.jpg	Angela Knight	6 July 1995	2 May 1997	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke crop 2.jpg	Helen Liddell	3 May 1997	27 July 1998	Labour	rowspan=8 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Blair	Brown
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Patricia Hewitt.jpg	Patricia Hewitt	27 July 1998	17 May 1999	Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Melanie Johnson.JPG	Melanie Johnson	17 May 1999	8 June 2001	Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:RuthKellyMP.jpg	Ruth Kelly	8 June 2001	15 May 2002	Labour
Office not in use			15 May 2002	30 May 2002
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Rt Hon John Healey MP crop 2.jpg	John Healey	30 May 2002	6 May 2005	Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Mr Ivan Lewis crop 2.jpg	Ivan Lewis	May 2005	May 2006	Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Ed Balls 2.jpg	Ed Balls	6 May 2006	28 June 2007	Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Kitty ussher at election count in burnley 2009.JPG	Kitty Ussher	29 June 2007	5 October 2008	Labour	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Brown	Darling
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Ianperason.jpg	Ian Pearson	5 October 2008	11 May 2010	Labour
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Justine Greening crop 2.jpg	Justine Greening	13 May 2010	14 October 2011	Conservative		Cameron (Coalition)	Osborne
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Chloe Smith MP crop 2.jpg	Chloe Smith	14 October 2011	4 September 2012	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP crop 2.jpg	Sajid Javid	4 September 2012	7 October 2013	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Baroness Morgan of Cotes crop 2.jpg	Nicky Morgan	7 October 2013	9 April 2014	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP crop 2.jpg	Andrea Leadsom	9 April 2014	11 May 2015	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Harriett Baldwin MP crop 2.jpg	Harriett Baldwin	11 May 2015	16 July 2016	Conservative	style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Cameron (II)
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Simon Kirby MP.jpg	Simon Kirby	17 July 2016	9 June 2017	Conservative	style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	May (I)	Hammond
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP crop 2.jpg	Steve Barclay	14 June 2017	9 January 2018	Conservative	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color; border: none" |	May (II)
rowspan=4 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of John Glen MP crop 2.jpg	John Glen	9 January 2018	6 July 2022	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color; border: none" |
rowspan=3 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |						Johnson	Javid
Sunak
rowspan=3 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Richard Fuller MP crop 2.jpg	Richard Fuller	8 July 2022	27 October 2022	Conservative		Zahawi
rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |						Truss	Kwarteng
Hunt
	style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Andrew Griffith MP crop 2.jpg	Andrew Griffith	27 October 2022	13 November 2023	Conservative	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Sunak
	style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Bim Afolami MP crop 2.jpg	Bim Afolami	13 November 2023	5 July 2024	Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Tulip Siddiq crop 2.jpg	Tulip Siddiq	9 July 2024	14 January 2025	Labour	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	Starmer	Reeves
style="background-color:Template:Party color" |	File:Official portrait of Emma Reynolds MP crop 2, 2024.jpg	Emma Reynolds	14 January 2025	Incumbent	Labour

See also

• Secretary to the Treasury