United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs | |
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Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | |
Style |
|
Type | Minister of the Crown |
Status | Secretary of State Great Office of State |
Member of | |
Reports to | The Prime Minister |
Residence |
|
Seat | King Charles Street |
Nominator | The Prime Minister |
Appointer | The Monarch (on the advice of the Prime Minister) |
Term length | At His Majesty's pleasure |
Formation |
|
First holder | Charles James Fox (as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) |
Deputy | Andrew Mitchell, Deputy Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs |
Salary | £106,363 per annum (2022) [1] |
Website | Foreign Secretary |
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Politics of the United Kingdom |
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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]
The current 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.
The role is deputised by the deputy foreign secretary, a position which was incepted in April 2024.
In contrast to what is generally known as a foreign minister in many other countries, the Foreign Secretary's remit includes:
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]
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]
Post created through the merger of the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.
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 |
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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.