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.
| United Kingdom Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
|---|---|
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government | |
Incumbent since 1 September 2025James Murray | |
| 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) (including £86,584 MP salary) |
| Website | Official Website |
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.
The office holder is responsible for public expenditure, including spending reviews and value for money.
List of chief secretaries to the treasury
| Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chief secretary | Term of office | Party | Ministry | Chancellor | |||||
| Henry Brooke MP for Hampstead | 9 October 1961 | 13 July 1962 | Conservative | Macmillan (I & II) | Selwyn Lloyd | ||||
| | John Boyd-Carpenter MP for Kingston-upon-Thames | 13 July 1962 | 16 October 1964 | Conservative | Reginald Maudling | ||||
| Douglas-Home | |||||||||
| Jack Diamond MP for Gloucester | 20 October 1964 | 19 June 1970 | Labour | Wilson (I & II) | James Callaghan | ||||
| Roy Jenkins | |||||||||
| Maurice Macmillan MP for Farnham | 23 June 1970 | 7 April 1972 | Conservative | Heath | Iain Macleod | ||||
| Anthony Barber | |||||||||
| Patrick Jenkin MP for Wanstead and Woodford | 7 April 1972 | 8 January 1974 | Conservative | ||||||
| Tom Boardman MP for Leicester South West | 8 January 1974 | 4 March 1974 | Conservative | ||||||
| Joel Barnett MP for Heywood and Royton | 7 March 1974 | 4 May 1979 | Labour | Wilson (III & IV) | Denis Healey | ||||
| Callaghan | |||||||||
| John Biffen MP for Oswestry | 5 May 1979 | 5 January 1981 | Conservative | Thatcher I | Geoffrey Howe | ||||
| Leon Brittan MP for Cleveland and Whitby | 5 January 1981 | 11 June 1983 | Conservative | ||||||
| Peter Rees MP for Dover | 11 June 1983 | 2 September 1985 | Conservative | Thatcher II | Nigel Lawson | ||||
| John MacGregor MP for South Norfolk | 2 September 1985 | 13 June 1987 | Conservative | ||||||
| John Major MP for Huntingdon | 13 June 1987 | 24 July 1989 | Conservative | Thatcher III | |||||
| Norman Lamont MP for Kingston-upon-Thames | 24 July 1989 | 28 November 1990 | Conservative | John Major | |||||
| David Mellor MP for Putney | 28 November 1990 | 10 April 1992 | Conservative | Major I | Norman Lamont | ||||
| Michael Portillo MP for Enfield Southgate | 10 April 1992 | 20 July 1994 | Conservative | Major II | |||||
| Kenneth Clarke | |||||||||
| Jonathan Aitken MP for South Thanet | 20 July 1994 | 5 July 1995 | Conservative | ||||||
| William Waldegrave MP for Bristol West | 5 July 1995 | 2 May 1997 | Conservative | ||||||
| Alistair Darling MP for Edinburgh Central | 3 May 1997 | 27 July 1998 | Labour | Blair I | Gordon Brown | ||||
| Stephen Byers MP for North Tyneside | 27 July 1998 | 23 December 1998 | Labour | ||||||
| Alan Milburn MP for Darlington | 23 December 1998 | 11 October 1999 | Labour | ||||||
| Andrew Smith MP for Oxford East | 11 October 1999 | 29 May 2002 | Labour | ||||||
| Blair II | |||||||||
| Paul Boateng MP for Brent South | 29 May 2002 | 6 May 2005 | Labour | ||||||
| Des Browne MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun | 6 May 2005 | 5 May 2006 | Labour | Blair III | |||||
| Stephen Timms MP for East Ham | 5 May 2006 | 28 June 2007 | Labour | ||||||
| Andy Burnham MP for Leigh | 28 June 2007 | 24 January 2008 | Labour | Brown | Alistair Darling | ||||
| Yvette Cooper MP for Pontefract and Castleford | 24 January 2008 | 5 June 2009 | Labour | ||||||
| Liam Byrne MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill | 5 June 2009 | 11 May 2010 | Labour | ||||||
| David Laws MP for Yeovil | 12 May 2010 | 29 May 2010 | Liberal Democrat | Cameron–Clegg (Con.–L.D.) | George Osborne | ||||
| Danny Alexander MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey | 29 May 2010 | 8 May 2015 | Liberal Democrat | ||||||
| Greg Hands MP for Chelsea and Fulham | 11 May 2015 | 14 July 2016 | Conservative | Cameron II | |||||
| David Gauke MP for South West Hertfordshire | 14 July 2016 | 11 June 2017 | Conservative | May I | Philip Hammond | ||||
| Liz Truss MP for South West Norfolk | 11 June 2017 | 24 July 2019 | Conservative | May II | |||||
| Rishi Sunak MP for Richmond (Yorks) | 24 July 2019 | 13 February 2020 | Conservative | Johnson I | Sajid Javid | ||||
| | Johnson II | ||||||||
| Steve Barclay MP for North East Cambridgeshire | 13 February 2020 | 15 September 2021 | Conservative | Rishi Sunak | |||||
| Simon Clarke MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland | 15 September 2021 | 6 September 2022 | Conservative | ||||||
| Nadhim Zahawi | |||||||||
| Chris Philp MP for Croydon South | 6 September 2022 | 14 October 2022 | Conservative | Truss | Kwasi Kwarteng | ||||
| Edward Argar MP for Charnwood | 14 October 2022 | 25 October 2022 | Conservative | Jeremy Hunt | |||||
| John Glen 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 | 1 September 2025 | Labour | Starmer | Rachel Reeves | ||||
| James Murray MP for Ealing North | 1 September 2025 | Incumbent | Labour | ||||||
See also
- Secretary to the Treasury
- Financial Secretary to the Treasury
- Economic Secretary to the Treasury
- Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
- Paymaster General
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