Foreign Secretary
- Foreign Secretary
(informal) - The Right Honourable
(within the UK and Commonwealth) - His Excellency
(diplomatic)
Great Office of State
- Cabinet
- Privy Council
- National Security Council
- No. 1 Carlton Gardens
(Official) - Chevening
(Country House)
(on the advice of the Prime Minister)
- 27 March 1782
(as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) - 2 September 2020
(as Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs)
(as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs)
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, also known as the foreign secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.[2] The role is seen as one of the most senior ministers in the UK Government and is a Great Office of State. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and National Security Council, and reports directly to the prime minister.
The officeholder works alongside the other Foreign Office ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow foreign secretary. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee also evaluates the secretary of state's performance.[3]
As of 2023[update] the foreign secretary is David Cameron, who served as prime minister from 2010 until 2016. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed Cameron to the post in the November 2023 cabinet reshuffle.
Responsibilities
In contrast to what is generally known as a foreign minister in many other countries, the Foreign Secretary's remit includes:
- British relations with foreign countries and governments[4]
- Promotion of British interests abroad[5]
- Matters pertaining to the Commonwealth of Nations and the Overseas Territories[5]
- Oversight for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)[6]
Residence
The official residence of the foreign secretary is 1 Carlton Gardens, in London.[7] The foreign secretary also has the use of Chevening House, a country house in Kent, South East England,[8] and works from the Foreign Office in Whitehall.[9]
History
The title secretary of state in the government of England dates back to the early 17th century. The position of secretary of state for foreign affairs was created in the British governmental reorganisation of 1782, in which the Northern and Southern Departments became the Foreign Office and Home Office respectively.[10] The India Office which, like the Colonial Office and the Dominions Office, had been a constituent predecessor department of the Foreign Office, was closed down in 1947.[11]
Eventually, the position of secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs came into existence in 1968 with the merger of the functions of secretary of the state for foreign affairs and the secretary of state for Commonwealth affairs into a single department of state. Margaret Beckett, appointed in 2006 by Tony Blair, was the first woman to have held the post.[12]
The post of secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs was created in 2020 when position holder Dominic Raab absorbed the responsibilities of the secretary of state for international development.[13]
List of foreign secretaries
Secretaries of state for foreign affairs (1782–1968)
Portrait | Name[15] | Term of office | Party | Ministry | Monarch (Reign) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Charles James Fox[14] MP for Westminster | 27 March 1782 | 5 July 1782 | Whig | Rockingham II | George III (1760–1820) [1782 1] | ||
Thomas Robinson 2nd Baron Grantham[14] | 13 July 1782 | 2 April 1783 | Whig | Shelburne (Whig–Tory) | |||
Charles James Fox[14] MP for Westminster | 2 April 1783 | 19 December 1783 | Whig | Fox–North | |||
George Nugent-Temple-Grenville 3rd Earl Temple[14] | 19 December 1783 | 23 December 1783 | Tory | Pitt I | |||
His Grace Francis Osborne 5th Duke of Leeds[14] | 23 December 1783 | May 1791 | Tory | ||||
William Grenville 1st Baron Grenville[14]PC FRS | 8 June 1791 | 20 February 1801 | Tory | ||||
| Robert Jenkinson 2nd Earl of Liverpool KG PC[14] MP for Rye[1782 2] | 20 February 1801 | 14 May 1804 | Tory | |||
Addington | |||||||
Dudley Ryder 2nd Baron Harrowby[14] | 14 May 1804 | 11 January 1805 | Tory | Pitt II | |||
Henry Phipps 3rd Baron Mulgrave[14] | 11 January 1805 | 7 February 1806 | Tory | ||||
Charles James Fox[14] MP for Westminster | 7 February 1806 | 13 September 1806† | Whig | All the Talents (Whig–Tory) | |||
Charles Grey Viscount Howick[14] MP for Northumberland | 24 September 1806 | 25 March 1807 | Whig | ||||
George Canning[14] | 25 March 1807 | 11 October 1809 | Tory | Portland II | |||
Henry Bathurst 3rd Earl Bathurst[14] | 11 October 1809 | 6 December 1809 | Tory | Perceval | |||
Richard Wellesley 1st Marquess Wellesley[14] | 6 December 1809 | 4 March 1812 | Independent | ||||
Robert Stewart 2nd Marquess of Londonderry[14] | 4 March 1812 | 12 August 1822† | Tory | Liverpool | |||
George IV | |||||||
George Canning[14] MP for 3 constituencies respectively | 16 September 1822 | 30 April 1827 | Tory | ||||
John Ward 1st Earl of Dudley[14] | 30 April 1827 | 2 June 1828 | Tory | Canning (Canningite–Whig) | |||
Goderich | |||||||
| Wellington–Peel | ||||||
George Hamilton-Gordon 4th Earl of Aberdeen[14] | 2 June 1828 | 22 November 1830 | Tory | ||||
William IV | |||||||
Henry John Temple 3rd Viscount Palmerston[14] MP for 3 constituencies respectively | 22 November 1830 | 14 November 1834 | Whig | Grey | |||
Melbourne I | |||||||
Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington[14] | 14 November 1834 | 18 April 1835 | Tory | Wellington Caretaker | |||
Conservative | Peel I | ||||||
Henry John Temple 3rd Viscount Palmerston[14] MP for Tiverton | 18 April 1835 | 2 September 1841 | Whig | Melbourne II | |||
Victoria (1837–1901) | |||||||
George Hamilton-Gordon 4th Earl of Aberdeen[14] | 2 September 1841 | 6 July 1846 | Conservative | Peel II | |||
Henry John Temple 3rd Viscount Palmerston[14] MP for Tiverton | 6 July 1846 | 26 December 1851 | Whig | Russell I | |||
Granville Leveson-Gower 2nd Earl Granville[14] | 26 December 1851 | 27 February 1852 | Whig | ||||
James Howard Harris 3rd Earl of Malmesbury[14] | 27 February 1852 | 28 December 1852 | Conservative | Who? Who? | |||
Lord John Russell[14] MP for the City of London | 28 December 1852 | 21 February 1853 | Whig | Aberdeen (Peelite–Whig) | |||
| George Villiers 4th Earl of Clarendon[14] | 21 February 1853 | 26 February 1858 | Whig | |||
Palmerston I | |||||||
James Howard Harris 3rd Earl of Malmesbury[14] | 26 February 1858 | 18 June 1859 | Conservative | Derby–Disraeli II | |||
John Russell 1st Earl Russell[14] | 18 June 1859 | 3 November 1865 | Liberal | Palmerston II | |||
George Villiers 4th Earl of Clarendon | 3 November 1865 | 6 July 1866 | Liberal | Russell II | |||
Edward Stanley Lord Stanley[14] MP for King's Lynn | 6 July 1866 | 9 December 1868 | Conservative | Derby–Disraeli III | |||
George Villiers 4th Earl of Clarendon[14] | 9 December 1868 | 6 July 1870 | Liberal | Gladstone I | |||
Granville Leveson-Gower 2nd Earl Granville[14] | 6 July 1870 | 21 February 1874 | Liberal | ||||
Edward Stanley 15th Earl of Derby[14] | 21 February 1874 | 2 April 1878 | Conservative | Disraeli II | |||
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury[14] | 2 April 1878 | 28 April 1880 | Conservative | ||||
Granville Leveson-Gower 2nd Earl Granville[14] | 28 April 1880 | 24 June 1885 | Liberal | Gladstone II | |||
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury[14] | 24 June 1885 | 6 February 1886 | Conservative | Salisbury I | |||
Archibald Primrose 5th Earl of Rosebery[14] | 6 February 1886 | 3 August 1886 | Liberal | Gladstone III | |||
Stafford Northcote 1st Earl of Iddesleigh[14] | 3 August 1886 | 12 January 1887† | Conservative | Salisbury II | |||
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury[14] | 14 January 1887 | 11 August 1892 | Conservative | ||||
Archibald Primrose 5th Earl of Rosebery[14] | 18 August 1892 | 11 March 1894 | Liberal | Gladstone IV | |||
John Wodehouse 1st Earl of Kimberley[14] | 11 March 1894 | 21 June 1895 | Liberal | Rosebery | |||
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury[14] | 29 June 1895 | 12 November 1900 | Conservative | Salisbury (III & IV) (Con.–Lib.U.) | |||
| Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice 5th Marquess of Lansdowne[14] | 12 November 1900 | 4 December 1905 | Liberal Unionist | |||
| Edward VII (1901–1910) | ||||||
Balfour | |||||||
Edward Grey[14] MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed | 10 December 1905 | 10 December 1916 | Liberal | Campbell-Bannerman | |||
| Asquith (I–III) | ||||||
| George V | ||||||
Asquith Coalition (Lib.–Con.–et al.) | |||||||
Arthur Balfour[14] MP for the City of London | 10 December 1916 | 23 October 1919 | Conservative | Lloyd George (I & II) | |||
| George Curzon 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston[14] | 23 October 1919 | 22 January 1924 | Conservative | |||
Law | |||||||
Baldwin I | |||||||
Ramsay MacDonald[14] MP for Aberavon | 22 January 1924 | 3 November 1924 | Labour | MacDonald I | |||
Austen Chamberlain[14] MP for Birmingham West | 6 November 1924 | 4 June 1929 | Conservative | Baldwin II | |||
Arthur Henderson[14] MP for Burnley | 7 June 1929 | 24 August 1931 | Labour | MacDonald II | |||
Rufus Isaacs 1st Marquess of Reading[14] | 25 August 1931 | 5 November 1931 | Liberal | National I (N.Lab.–Con.–et al.) | |||
John Simon[14] MP for Spen Valley | 5 November 1931 | 7 June 1935 | Liberal National | National II | |||
Samuel Hoare[14] MP for Chelsea | 7 June 1935 | 18 December 1935 | Conservative | National III (Con.–N.Lab.–et al.) | |||
| Anthony Eden[14] MP for Warwick & Leamington | 22 December 1935 | 20 February 1938 | Conservative | |||
Edward VIII (1936) | |||||||
| George VI | ||||||
| National IV | ||||||
| Edward Wood 3rd Viscount Halifax[14] | 21 February 1938 | 22 December 1940 | Conservative | |||
Chamberlain War | |||||||
Churchill War (All parties) | |||||||
Anthony Eden[14] MP for Warwick & Leamington | 22 December 1940 | 26 July 1945 | Conservative | ||||
Churchill Caretaker (Con.–Lib.N.) | |||||||
Ernest Bevin[14] | 27 July 1945 | 9 March 1951 | Labour | Attlee (I & II) | |||
Herbert Morrison[14] MP for Lewisham South | 9 March 1951 | 26 October 1951 | Labour | ||||
Anthony Eden[14] MP for Warwick & Leamington | 28 October 1951 | 7 April 1955 | Conservative | Churchill III | |||
Elizabeth II | |||||||
Harold Macmillan[14] MP for Bromley | 7 April 1955 | 20 December 1955 | Conservative | Eden | |||
Selwyn Lloyd[14] MP for Wirral | 20 December 1955 | 27 July 1960 | Conservative | ||||
Macmillan (I & II) | |||||||
Alec Douglas-Home 14th Earl of Home[14] | 27 July 1960 | 18 October 1963 | Conservative | ||||
Richard Austen Butler[14] MP for Saffron Walden | 20 October 1963 | 16 October 1964 | Conservative | Douglas-Home | |||
Patrick Gordon Walker[14] Neither an MP nor a Lord[1782 5] | 16 October 1964 | 22 January 1965 | Labour | Wilson (I & II) | |||
Michael Stewart[14] MP for Fulham | 22 January 1965 | 11 August 1966 | Labour | ||||
George Brown[14] MP for Belper | 11 August 1966 | 16 March 1968 | Labour | ||||
Michael Stewart[14] MP for Fulham | 16 March 1968 | 17 October 1968 | Labour |
- ^† Died in office.
- ^ The Prince of Wales served as prince regent from 5 February 1811.
- ^ Elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom in November 1803.
- ^ Elected to a new constituency in the 1807 general election.
- ^ Elected to a new constituency in the 1950 general election.
- ^ Walker was the MP for Smethwick and Labour's shadow Foreign Secretary, prior to the 1964 general election. He lost his seat in the election but was appointed to the post anyway. He resigned after fighting and losing a 1965 by-election in Leyton.
Secretaries of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs (1968–2020)
Post created through the merger of the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.
Portrait | Name[16] (birth–death) | Term of office | Party | Ministry | Sovereign (Reign) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Michael Stewart[14] MP for Fulham (1906–1990) | 17 October 1968 | 19 June 1970 | Labour | Wilson (I & II) | Elizabeth II (1952–2022) | ||
Alec Douglas-Home[14] MP for Kinross and Western Perthshire (1903–1995) | 20 June 1970 | 4 March 1974 | Conservative | Heath | |||
James Callaghan[14] MP for Cardiff South East (1912–2005) | 5 March 1974 | 5 April 1976 | Labour | Wilson (III & IV) | |||
Anthony Crosland[14] MP for Great Grimsby (1918–1977) | 8 April 1976 | 19 February 1977† | Labour | Callaghan | |||
David Owen[14] MP for Plymouth Devonport (born 1938) | 22 February 1977 | 4 May 1979 | Labour | ||||
Peter Carington 6th Baron Carrington KCMGMCPCDL[14] (1919–2018) | 4 May 1979 | 5 April 1982 | Conservative | Thatcher I | |||
Francis Pym[14] MP for Cambridgeshire (1922–2008) | 6 April 1982 | 11 June 1983 | Conservative | ||||
Geoffrey Howe[14] MP for East Surrey (1926–2015) | 11 June 1983 | 24 July 1989 | Conservative | Thatcher II | |||
| Thatcher III | ||||||
John Major[14] MP for Huntingdon (born 1943) | 24 July 1989 | 26 October 1989 | Conservative | ||||
| Douglas Hurd[14] MP for Witney (born 1930) | 26 October 1989 | 5 July 1995 | Conservative | |||
Major I | |||||||
| Major II | ||||||
Malcolm Rifkind[14] MP for Edinburgh Pentlands (born 1946) | 5 July 1995 | 2 May 1997 | Conservative | ||||
Robin Cook[14] MP for Livingston (1946–2005) | 2 May 1997 | 8 June 2001 | Labour | Blair I | |||
Jack Straw[14] MP for Blackburn (born 1946) | 8 June 2001 | 5 May 2006 | Labour | Blair II | |||
| Blair III | ||||||
Margaret Beckett[14] MP for Derby South (born 1943) | 5 May 2006 | 27 June 2007 | Labour | ||||
David Miliband[14] MP for South Shields (born 1965) | 28 June 2007 | 11 May 2010 | Labour | Brown | |||
William Hague[14] MP for Richmond (Yorks) (born 1961) | 12 May 2010 | 14 July 2014 | Conservative | Cameron–Clegg (Con.–L.D.) | |||
| Philip Hammond[14] MP for Runnymede and Weybridge (born 1955) | 14 July 2014 | 13 July 2016 | Conservative | |||
Cameron II | |||||||
Boris Johnson[14][17] MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (born 1964) | 13 July 2016 | 9 July 2018 | Conservative | May I | |||
| May II | ||||||
Jeremy Hunt[18] MP for South West Surrey (born 1966) | 9 July 2018 | 24 July 2019 | Conservative | ||||
Dominic Raab[19] MP for Esher and Walton (born 1974) | 24 July 2019 | 2 September 2020 | Conservative | Johnson I | |||
| Johnson II |
Secretaries of state for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (2020–present)
Post created through the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.
Portrait | Name[16] (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Party | Ministry | Sovereign (Reign) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dominic Raab MP for Esher and Walton (born 1974) | 2 September 2020 | 15 September 2021 | Conservative | Johnson II | Elizabeth II (1952–2022) | ||
Liz Truss MP for South West Norfolk (born 1975) | 15 September 2021 | 6 September 2022 | Conservative | ||||
James Cleverly MP for Braintree (born 1969) | 6 September 2022 | 13 November 2023 | Conservative | Truss | |||
Charles III (2022–present) | |||||||
Sunak | |||||||
David Cameron Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton[20] (born 1966) | 13 November 2023 | Incumbent | Conservative |
Timeline
See also
- Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
- Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
- Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs
- Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
- Secretary of State for the Colonies
- Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
- Foreign minister
- Great Offices of State
Notes
References
- ^ "Salaries of Members of His Majesty's Government – Financial Year 2022–23" (PDF). 15 December 2022.
- ^ "Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs". gov.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
- ^ "Afghanistan: The questions facing Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab". BBC News. 1 September 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will be grilled by the Foreign Affairs Committee over his handling of the UK's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
- ^ Archives, The National. "Senior Cabinet posts". www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
- ^ a b "Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
- ^ "Ministerial responsibility". GCHQ. 23 March 2016. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
Day-to-day ministerial responsibility for GCHQ lies with the Foreign Secretary.
- ^ "Written Answers to Questions: Foreign and Commonwealth Office: 1 Carlton Gardens". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 6 May 2009. col. 165W.
- ^ "Dominic Raab and Liz Truss agree to share 115-room mansion". BBC News. 13 October 2021.
- ^ Hughes, Laura (25 December 2021). "Britain's Foreign Office has badly lost its way, say critics". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
- ^ Sainty, J. C. (1973). "Introduction". Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 2 – Officials of the Secretaries of State 1660–1782. University of London. pp. 1–21 – via British History Online.
At the Restoration [in 1660] the practice of appointing two Secretaries of State, which was well established before the Civil War, was resumed. Apart from the modifications which were made necessary by the occasional existence of a third secretaryship, the organisation of the secretariat underwent no fundamental change from that time until the reforms of 1782 which resulted in the emergence of the Home and Foreign departments. ... English domestic affairs remained the responsibility of both Secretaries throughout the period. In the field of foreign affairs there was a division into a Northern and a Southern Department, each of which was the responsibility of one Secretary. The distinction between the two departments emerged only gradually. It was not until after 1689 that their names passed into general currency. Nevertheless the division of foreign business itself can, in its broad outlines, be detected in the early years of the reign of Charles II.
- ^ "India Office". British Museum. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
- ^ "Margaret Beckett". European Leadership Network. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
- ^ "Merging success: Bringing together the FCO and DFID : Government Response to Committee's Second Report". UK Parliament. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg "Past Foreign Secretaries". gov.uk. Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
- ^ Including honorifics and constituencies for elected MPs.
- ^ a b Including honorifics and constituencies for elected MPs.
- ^ "Boris Johnson quits to add to pressure on May over Brexit". BBC News. 9 July 2018.
- ^ "Jeremy Hunt replaces Boris Johnson as foreign secretary". BBC News. 9 July 2018.
- ^ Andrew Sparrow (24 July 2019). "Raab appointed foreign secretary and first secretary of state". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
- ^ Walker, Peter (13 November 2023). "Explainer: He's not an MP, so how can David Cameron return to the cabinet?". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
PC
Further reading
- Cecil, Algernon. British foreign secretaries, 1807–1916: studies in personality and policy (1927). pp. 89–130. online
- Goodman, Sam. The Imperial Premiership: The Role of the Modern Prime Minister in Foreign Policy Making, 1964–2015 (Oxford UP, 2016).
- Hughes, Michael. British Foreign Secretaries in an Uncertain World, 1919–1939. (Routledge, 2004).
- Johnson, Gaynor. "Introduction: The Foreign Office and British Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century", Contemporary British History, (2004) 18:3, 1–12, doi:10.1080/1361946042000259279
- Neilson, Keith, and Thomas G. Otte. The permanent under-secretary for foreign affairs, 1854–1946 (Routledge, 2008).
- Otte, Thomas G. The Foreign Office Mind: The Making of British Foreign Policy, 1865–1914 (Cambridge UP, 2011).
- Seldon, Anthony. The Impossible Office? The History of the British Prime Minister (2021) excerpt major scholarly history. Covers the relations with Prime Minister in Chapter 8.
- Steiner, Zara. The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898–1914 (1986).
- Temperley, Harold. "British Secret Diplomacy from Canning to Grey." Cambridge Historical Journal 6.1 (1938): 1–32.
- Theakston, Kevin, ed. British foreign secretaries since 1974 (Routledge, 2004).
- Wilson, Keith M., ed. British foreign secretaries and foreign policy: from Crimean War to First World War (1987).
External links
- FCDO website