Downing Street Chief of Staff

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox official post

The Downing Street chief of staff is the most senior political appointee in the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, acting as a senior aide to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The holder of the office retains a highly powerful, non-ministerial position within His Majesty's Government.

The role of chief of staff initially had executive authority, vested by the Prime Minister, and at the time of its inception, was referred to as the most powerful unelected official in the UK and possibly ranked third in government, after the elected Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.[1] Since 2007, the role does not have legal or executive authority, although the post holder remains, by definition, the senior adviser to the Prime Minister, and controls access to the Prime Minister and their staff.

From 1997 to 2019, and from November 2020, the title of Chief of Staff has been held by the most senior special adviser at Downing Street. Steve Barclay, the Member of Parliament for North East Cambridgeshire, served as Chief of Staff from February 2022 to July 2022, following the resignation of Dan Rosenfield. He was the first MP to serve in this capacity, and also retained his position as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and a Cabinet Minister, compounding the Chief of Staff's power and access in UK Government. On 24 July 2019, Dominic Cummings was appointed as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and was described as the de facto Chief of Staff from 24 July 2019 to 13 November 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The incumbent Downing Street Chief of Staff is Morgan McSweeney, who was appointed to the position in October 2024.[2]

Description

The Chief of Staff is an appointed special advisor or a career civil servant who is personally and politically close to the Prime Minister. The responsibilities of the post have varied according to the wishes of the sitting Prime Minister. Since the Chief of Staff is at the centre of the Downing Street operation, he or she will always be influential and closely involved in government policy formulation and implementation, political strategy and communication, and generally advising the Prime Minister, in conjunction with their wider "ministerial adviser" colleagues.

History

The first official chief of staff in 10 Downing Street was David Wolfson, under Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1985.[3] The position of Downing Street Chief of Staff was recreated by Tony Blair upon his becoming prime minister in 1997Script error: No such module "Unsubst". and Jonathan Powell held the post for ten years.

In 1997 Tony Blair gave his chief of staff, a special advisor, 'unprecedented powers' to issue orders to civil servants.[4] Previously the Cabinet secretary had been the most senior non-ministerial figure in the British Government, and along with the principal private secretary to the prime minister had supported the prime minister in the running of 10 Downing Street. Following the creation of the role, the chief of staff supplanted the principal private secretary in running Downing Street operations and effectively replaced the power of the Cabinet secretary in terms of co-ordinating government policy.

Although the Cabinet secretary continued to be a highly important role, through remaining responsible for making sure that the civil service was organised effectively and was capable of delivering the Government's objectives,[5] the chief of staff replaced the Cabinet Secretary as the "right-hand man" for the prime minister.[6] "Powell had been at the epicentre of power. As Tony Blair's chief of staff, he was the ultimate fixer, the prime minister's first line of defence against events, baby-catcher in chief. When things went wrong, people called Powell."[7]

When Powell stood down as chief of staff at the end of the Blair premiership in June 2007, the incoming prime minister, Gordon Brown, temporarily appointed civil servant Tom Scholar as both Downing Street chief of staff and principal private secretary to the prime minister. This was changed upon Scholar's scheduled departure in January 2008, when the title chief of staff was divided amongst two posts in an attempt to split the political policy communication role from the management of civil servants within Number 10.[8] As such, senior civil servant Jeremy Heywood replaced Scholar as principal private secretary to the prime minister, a position he had held under Tony Blair several years earlier, with the role of chief of strategy and principal advisor to the prime minister (effectively chief of staff) being given to political advisor Stephen Carter.[8][9]

After less than a year in the post Carter resigned, becoming a minister and receiving a peerage amid speculation that his 'chief of strategy' role had insufficient authority to direct cross-government operations;[10] the position of chief of staff remained vacant for the remainder of the Brown Premiership.[11] Upon David Cameron becoming prime minister in May 2010, Conservative advisor Edward Llewellyn was appointed as Downing Street chief of staff. Cameron also created the role of Downing Street deputy chief of staff, with responsibility for supporting the chief of staff, which was given to Catherine Fall.[12]

Theresa May appointed two joint chiefs of staff in Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill upon becoming prime minister in 2016.[13] Former minister Gavin Barwell succeeded Timothy and Hill after the 2017 general election.[14] The formal title was out of use between July 2019 and November 2020, under prime minister Boris Johnson, when the role was overseen by Dominic Cummings as chief adviser and Edward Lister as chief strategic adviser.[15] However, during this time, Cummings was noted to be the de facto chief of staff.[16][17][18] When Cummings departed Downing Street, Johnson appointed Lister as acting chief of staff.[19]

Lister was succeeded by Dan Rosenfield on a permanent basis.[20] In February 2022, following months of scandal owing to Partygate, Rosenfield, alongside other senior aides Martin Reynolds, Munira Mirza and Jack Doyle, resigned.[21] He was replaced by Steve Barclay, the first MP to hold the position. Barclay served concurrently as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, giving him notable power over Whitehall operations.[22]

Five months later, the resignation of Sajid Javid during the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis caused a vacancy in the office of Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which Barclay was appointed to fill shortly prior to Boris Johnson's resignation as prime minister. While no successor was formally appointed, Simone Finn, Baroness Finn held the role in a de facto, acting capacity.

On 6 September 2022 Mark Fullbrook, a veteran Conservative party strategist was installed in the role as part of the incoming Truss ministry.[23] Upon Rishi Sunak becoming prime minister on 25 October 2022, he installed long-term adviser Liam Booth-Smith as chief of staff, making Fullbrook the shortest-serving chief of staff in the office's history.[24]

List of Downing Street Chiefs of Staff

<templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />

  Denotes service as acting or de facto Chief of Staff
Downing Street Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff Term of office Duration Party Ministry
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Blank.svg David Wolfson Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd Conservative style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Thatcher I
Thatcher II
Vacant 2 September 1985 – 2 May 1997
Various de facto Chiefs of StaffScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Thatcher III
Major I
Major II
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Jonathan Powell crop.jpg Jonathan Powell Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd Labour style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Blair I
Blair II
Blair III
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Tom Scholar (cropped).jpg Tom Scholar Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd Independent rowspan="2" style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Brown
Vacant 23 January 2008 – 11 May 2010[11][note 1]
Stephen Carter served as Chief of Strategy and Principal Adviser to the Prime Minister from 23 January to 10 October 2008.
Jeremy Heywood served as the 'de facto' Chief of Staff from 10 October 2008 to 11 May 2010.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:S465 EdLlewellyn2017 GOVUK.jpg Edward Llewellyn Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd Conservative Cameron–Clegg
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Cameron II
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy collage.png Fiona Hill Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd rowspan="2" style="background-color:Template:Party color" | May I
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Nick Timothy
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Official portrait of Lord Barwell crop 2.jpg Gavin Barwell Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd style="background-color:Template:Party color" | May II
Vacant 24 July 2019 – 13 November 2020
Dominic Cummings as Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Edward Lister as Chief Strategic AdviserScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Johnson I
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Official portrait of Lord Udny-Lister crop 2, 2021.jpg Edward Lister, Baron Udny-Lister
(Acting) 		Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd Conservative rowspan="4" style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Johnson II
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Dan Rosenfield.png Dan Rosenfield Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd Independent
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Official portrait of Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP crop 2.jpg Steve Barclay MP Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd Conservative
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Official Portrait of Baroness Finn, 2024.jpg Simone Finn, Baroness Finn
(De facto) 		Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Blank.svg Mark Fullbrook Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Truss
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Official portrait of Lord Booth-Smith crop 2, 2025.jpg Liam Booth-Smith Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd Independent style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Sunak
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | File:Sue Gray (civil servant) official portrait (cropped).jpg Sue Gray Template:Dts Template:Dts Template:Ayd Labour style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Starmer
style="background-color:Template:Party color" | Morgan McSweeney Template:Dts Incumbent Template:Ayd style="background-color:Template:Party color" |

See also

Notes

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References

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Template:Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister Template:Downing Street

  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Nick Assinder. Jonathan Powell BBC 14 July 2004. (Accessed 25 September 2007)
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  23. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  24. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".


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