Great Offices of State

Not to be confused with Great Officers of State (United Kingdom).

The Great Offices of State are senior political offices in important ministerial portfolios in the UK government. They are (in order of seniority) the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Foreign Secretary, and the Home Secretary. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}

History

Roles and early history

The Great Offices of State are derived from the most senior positions in the Royal Household – the Great Officers of State. These eventually became largely hereditary and mostly honorary titles, while the substantive duties of the respective Officers passed to leading, powerful, individual politicians, each of whom sat usually in the House of Commons, who were appointed by the monarch to their various ministries on the advice of the Prime Minister. ^[6]

John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon became the first person to have held three of the Great Offices of State other than Prime Minister. He served as Home Secretary from 1915 to 1916 and from 1935 to 1937, Foreign Secretary from 1931 to 1935, and then as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1937 to 1940. ^[7] Rab Butler became the second person to have held all three of the offices but not Prime Minister, having served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1951 to 1955, Home Secretary from 1957 to 1962, and as Foreign Secretary 1963 and 1964. ^[8]

James Callaghan is the only person to have served in all four positions. ^{[1] [9]}

Truss and Sunak government

The Truss ministry formed on 6 September 2022 and initially had no white men holding positions in the Great Offices of State, for the first time in British political history. ^{[10] [11] [12]} This remained the case for just 38 days until the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor of the Exchequer on 14 October 2022, replacing Kwasi Kwarteng who had been the first black Chancellor. ^[13] Five days later on 19 October 2022, Grant Shapps was appointed Home Secretary, replacing Suella Braverman, ^[14] although Braverman was then reappointed by incoming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak just six days later.

Following Sunak's reshuffle in November 2023, this marked the first instance since May 2010 where no women occupied a Great Office of State. It also marked the first 21st century instance of a former prime minister holding another Great Office of State, with newly appointed Lord temporal David Cameron being appointed as Foreign Secretary in the Sunak ministry, becoming the first former prime minister to serve in a ministerial post since Alec Douglas-Home in 1970−1974. ^[15]

Starmer government

Following the general election on 4 July 2024, Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed Rachel Reeves as Chancellor of the Exchequer, thus making Reeves the first female Chancellor in the 708-year history of HM Treasury. ^[16] Starmer appointed women to a record half of all cabinet posts, including three of the top five positions in the government: along with Reeves, Angela Rayner became Deputy Prime Minister and Yvette Cooper was made Home Secretary. ^{[17] [18]}

Following the 2025 cabinet reshuffle, which occurred after the resignation of Rayner, ^[19] Shabana Mahmood was appointed Home Secretary, while Cooper was appointed Foreign Secretary, and Reeves stayed in position. This marked the first time in British political history where three of the great offices of state were held by women. ^[20]

Public views

According to a YouGov poll conducted in 2017, the British public view the three most senior cabinet ministers as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and the Secretary of State for Defence, with the office of Home Secretary coming in fourth place, and that of Foreign Secretary in just ninth place, preceded by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and followed by the Secretary of State for International Trade. The office of Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport was viewed as least important, with just 3% of respondents saying they viewed it as one of the most important positions. ^[21]

Current

Great Offices of State of His Majesty's Government [22]
Burnham ministry
Office	Name		Start	Concurrent government office(s)	Most recent cabinet role(s)
Prime Minister		Andy Burnham MP for Makerfield	20 July 2026 (1 day ago) (2026-07-20)	First Lord of the Treasury Minister for the Civil Service Minister for the Union	Health Secretary (2009–2010)
Chancellor of the Exchequer		John Healey MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough	20 July 2026 (1 day ago) (2026-07-20)	Second Lord of the Treasury	Defence Secretary (2024–2026)
Foreign Secretary (Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs)		Ed Miliband MP for Doncaster North	20 July 2026 (1 day ago) (2026-07-20)		Energy Secretary (2024–2026)
Home Secretary (Secretary of State for the Home Department)		Shabana Mahmood MP for Birmingham Ladywood	5 September 2025 (10 months ago) (2025-09-05)		Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor (2024–2025)

See also

• Cabinet of the United Kingdom
• List of shadow holders of the Great Offices of State

References

1. McKie, David (28 March 2005). "Lord Callaghan". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 3 November 2007. Retrieved 10 June 2008. He had held all four of the great offices of state
2. Eason, Gary (27 March 2005). "Callaghan's great education debate". BBC News. Archived from the original on 15 January 2009. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
3. "The Conservative Party | People | Members of Parliament | Kenneth Clarke". Conservative Party. 10 February 2010. Archived from the original on 10 February 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
4. "The Cabinet - Cabinet and the Great Offices of State". Britpolitics. Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
5. "The Great Offices of State". BBC. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
6. Phillips, Owen Hood; Chalmers, Dalzell (1952). The Constitutional Law of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. London: Sweet & Maxwell. p. 240. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
7. "www.liberalhistory.org.uk - Biography of Simon". www.liberalhistory.org.uk. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
8. "BBC - History - Richard Austen Butler". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
9. "Lady Callaghan of Cardiff". The Independent. London. 30 March 2005.^{[ dead link ]}
10. Khan, Aina J. (5 September 2022). "UK's four great offices of state may soon not feature a white man for first time". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
11. Zeffman, Henry (5 September 2022). "Great offices of state set to contain no white men". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 11 September 2022.
12. Martin, Daniel (6 September 2022). "Liz Truss forms most diverse Cabinet in history with no white males in top jobs". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 11 September 2022.
13. "PM confirms Hunt as new chancellor". BBC News. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
14. "Liz Truss's government on the brink after Suella Braverman's parting shot". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
15. Crerar, Pippa (13 November 2023). "David Cameron makes shock comeback in high-risk reshuffle". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 16 July 2026.
16. "Rachel Reeves: Who is the UK's new chancellor?". 5 July 2024.
17. "Who is in Keir Starmer's new cabinet". BBC News. 5 July 2024. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
18. Adam, Karla; Taylor, Adam; Timsit, Annabelle (5 July 2024). "Who is in Keir Starmer's new U.K. government?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
19. "Angela Rayner resigns after underpaying tax on Hove flat". BBC News. 5 September 2025.
20. "Seven things we learned from Keir Starmer's first reshuffle". Institute for Government. 11 September 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2026.
21. Smith, Matthew (19 September 2017). "What do the public think are the real Great Offices of State?". Yougov . Archived from the original on 11 May 2026. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
22. "Ministers". UK Government. Archived from the original on 2 June 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2021.