Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson | |
---|---|
Incumbent Max Blain since 1 April 2021 | |
Prime Minister's Office | |
Appointer | Prime minister |
Website | www |
The prime minister's official spokesperson or alternatively prime minister's official spokesman/spokeswoman is a position in the United Kingdom's Civil Service, located in the Prime Minister's Office in 10 Downing Street and used by the British prime minister to convey information to the public. The prime minister's official spokesperson usually addresses a small group of press and media correspondents, known as lobby correspondents, each morning to deliver statements on current events on behalf of the prime minister.
James Slack was appointed as the prime minister's official spokesperson on 10 February 2017. [1] He remained in the post after Boris Johnson took over the government on 24 July 2019. [2] In December 2020 it was announced that at the beginning of 2021 Slack would succeed Lee Cain as the Downing Street director of communications, it was subsequently announced on 9 February 2021 that Max Blain had been appointed as the prime minister's official spokesperson and would start in the post in April 2021. [3]
Spokesperson | Years | Prime Minister | |
---|---|---|---|
Alastair Campbell [4] | 1997–2001 | Tony Blair | |
Godric Smith [5] | 2001–2004 | ||
Tom Kelly [6] | 2004–2007 | ||
Michael Ellam [7] [8] | 2007–2009 | Gordon Brown | |
Simon Lewis [9] | 2009–2010 | ||
Steve Field [10] [11] | 2010–2012 | David Cameron | |
Jean-Christophe Gray [12] | 2012–2015 | ||
Helen Bower [13] | 2015–2016 | ||
2016–2017 | Theresa May | ||
James Slack [1] | 2017–2019 | ||
2019–2021 | Boris Johnson | ||
Jamie Davies (Acting) | 2021 | ||
Max Blain [3] | 2021–2022 | ||
2022 | Liz Truss | ||
2022–present | Rishi Sunak |
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the senior decision-making body of His Majesty's Government. A committee of the Privy Council, it is chaired by the Prime Minister and its members include Secretaries of State and other senior ministers. Members of the Cabinet are appointed by the Prime Minister and are by convention chosen from members of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Cabinet is now made up almost entirely of members of the House of Commons.
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster and activist, known for his political roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman and campaign director in opposition (1994–1997), then as Downing Street Press Secretary, and as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson (1997–2000). He then became Downing Street director of communications and spokesman for the Labour Party (2000–2003). He returned as campaign director for the 2005 general election in Blair's third win.
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Humphrey was a cat employed as the chief mouser to the Cabinet Office at 10 Downing Street from October 1989 to 13 November 1997. Arriving as a one-year-old stray, he served under the premierships of Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair, retiring six months after the Blairs moved into Downing Street. He was the successor to Wilberforce. Humphrey was frequently referred to in jest by the press as an actual employee at Number 10.
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"Enemies of the People" was the headline to an article by the political editor James Slack, published in the British newspaper Daily Mail on 4 November 2016. The headline and associated article were about the three judges who had ruled that the UK Government would require the consent of Parliament to give notice of Brexit. The headline was widely criticised as being inappropriately condemnatory and attracted numerous complaints, given that the British judiciary is independent of the Government. The court had ruled on the question of whether the Constitution of the United Kingdom permitted the government to use the royal prerogative to invoke Article 50.
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Jeremy John Heywood, Baron Heywood of Whitehall, was a British civil servant who served as Cabinet Secretary to David Cameron and Theresa May from 2012 to 2018 and Head of the Home Civil Service from 2014 to 2018. He served as the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1999 to 2003 and 2008 to 2010. He also served as Downing Street Chief of Staff and the first Downing Street Permanent Secretary. After he was diagnosed with lung cancer, he took a leave of absence from June 2018, and retired on health grounds on 24 October 2018, receiving a life peerage; he died a fortnight later on 4 November 2018.
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Johnson's spokesman, James Slack, suggested there's little point to talks unless the EU accepts that position [...]