The deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom is an honorific title given to a minister of the Crown and a member of the British Cabinet, normally to signify a very senior minister, the deputy party leader, or a key political ally of the prime minister. It does not entail any specific legal responsibilities, though the holder may be assigned some, and is usually paired with a departmental secretary of state position. The title is not always in use and prime ministers have been known to appoint informal deputies without the title of deputy prime minister. The current deputy prime minister is Angela Rayner.
The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
Harriet Ruth Harman, Baroness Harman,, is a British politician and solicitor. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for more than 40 years, from 1982 to 2024, making her the second longest-serving female MP in British history after Baroness Beckett. Harman was MP for Camberwell and Peckham from 1997 to 2024 and MP for Peckham from 1982 to 1997. A member of the Labour Party, she was Deputy Labour Leader and Chair of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2015, and also briefly served as Leader of the Opposition in 2010 and 2015, after the resignations of Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, respectively. She served in various Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet positions. She has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024. The same year, Harman succeeded Labour Party MP Jess Phillips as co-host of the Sky News podcast Electoral Dysfunction, alongside political editor Beth Rigby and former Scottish Conservatives Leader Baroness Davidson.
Maria Eagle is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Garston, previously Garston and Halewood, since 1997. She has served as Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry in the Ministry of Defence since July 2024. She served in the Shadow cabinets of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn.
Sir David Roy Lidington is a former British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aylesbury from 1992 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2018 to 2019 and was frequently described as being Theresa May's de facto Deputy Prime Minister.
Following poor results for the Labour Party in the local elections in England on 4 May 2006, British Prime Minister Tony Blair held a cabinet reshuffle the following day.
Gordon Brown formed the Brown ministry after being invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government following the resignation of the previous prime minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, on 27 June 2007. Brown formed his government over the course of the next day, with Jacqui Smith being appointed the United Kingdom's first female home secretary.
The Office for Equality and Opportunity is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. Based in the Cabinet Office, it is led by the Minister for Women and Equalities.
The representation of women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has been an issue in the politics of the United Kingdom at numerous points in the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to vote and stand for election as Members of Parliament. The Parliament Act 1918 gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. The United Kingdom has had three female Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), Theresa May (2016–2019), and Liz Truss (2022). The publication of the book Women in the House by Elizabeth Vallance in 1979 highlighted the under-representation of women in Parliament. In more modern times concerns about the under-representation of women led the Labour Party to introduce and, decades later, abandon all-women short lists, something which was later held to breach discrimination laws.
Nicola Ann Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Cotes, is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2014 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2019 to 2020. She was the first woman to chair the Treasury Select Committee. A member of the Conservative Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Loughborough from 2010 to 2019.
The Cameron–Clegg coalition was formed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg when Cameron was invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government, following the resignation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010, after the general election on 6 May. It was the UK's first coalition government since the Churchill caretaker ministry in 1945.
Ed Miliband became Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition upon being elected to the former post on 25 September 2010. The election was triggered by Gordon Brown's resignation following the party's fall from power at the 2010 general election, which yielded a Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition. Miliband appointed his first Shadow Cabinet in October 2010, following the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet elections. These elections were the last such elections before they were abolished in 2011.
The shadow minister for women and equalities is a position in the United Kingdom's Official Opposition, and sits in the Shadow Cabinet. The shadow minister is responsible for holding the minister for women and equalities, responsible for the Government Equalities Office, to account and is responsible for Opposition policy on women's and equality issues.
Tony Blair was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from his election as Leader on 21 July 1994 until he became Prime Minister on 2 May 1997. Blair became leader upon the death of John Smith.
The third Blair ministry lasted from May 2005 to June 2007. The election on 5 May 2005 saw Labour win a historic third successive term in power, though their majority now stood at 66 seats – compared to 167 four years earlier – and they failed to gain any new seats. Blair had already declared that the new term in parliament would be his last.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) was a department of the United Kingdom Government, from July 2016 to February 2023. It was responsible for striking and extending trade agreements between the United Kingdom and foreign countries, as well as for encouraging foreign investment and export trade.
The first Johnson ministry began on 24 July 2019 when Queen Elizabeth II invited Boris Johnson to form a new government, following the resignation of the predecessor Prime Minister Theresa May. May had resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June 2019; Johnson was elected as her successor on 23 July 2019. The Johnson ministry was formed from the 57th Parliament of the United Kingdom, as a Conservative minority government. It lost its working majority on 3 September 2019 when Tory MP Phillip Lee crossed the floor to the Liberal Democrats. An election was called for 12 December 2019, which led to the formation of a Conservative majority government, the second Johnson ministry.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women's Health Strategy is a ministerial position within the Government of the United Kingdom, in charge of mental health and women's health policy.
