Shadow Minister without Portfolio | |
---|---|
Shadow Cabinet | |
Appointer | Leader of the Opposition |
Website | The Labour Party |
The Shadow Minister without Portfolio is a member of the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet. The postholder shadows the Minister without portfolio.
The position is currently held by Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour MP for Torfaen. He was appointed to the role in September 2023 by Keir Starmer, succeeding Conor McGinn.
Name | Portrait | Term of office | Length of term of office | Party | Shadow Cabinet | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cecil Parkinson [1] | 11 June 1997 | 2 December 1998 | 1 year, 5 months and 21 days | Conservative | Hague | ||
Michael Ancram [2] | 2 December 1998 | 18 September 2001 | 2 years, 9 months and 16 days | Conservative | |||
David Davis [3] | 18 September 2001 | 23 July 2002 | 10 months and 5 days | Conservative | Duncan Smith |
Name | Portrait | Term of office | Length of term of office | Party | Shadow Cabinet | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liam Fox [4] | 10 November 2003 | 10 May 2005 | 1 year and 6 months | Conservative | Howard | ||
Francis Maude [5] | 10 May 2005 | 3 July 2007 | 2 years, 1 month and 23 days | Conservative | |||
Cameron | |||||||
Oliver Letwin [6] | 8 December 2005 | 6 May 2010 | 4 years, 4 months and 28 days | Conservative | |||
Caroline Spelman [7] | 3 July 2007 | 19 January 2009 | 1 year, 6 months and 16 days | Conservative |
Name | Portrait | Term of office | Length of term of office | Party | Shadow Cabinet | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Michael Dugher [8] | 7 October 2011 | 7 October 2013 | 2 years | Labour | Miliband | ||
The Lord Wood of Anfield [9] [10] | 17 October 2011 | 27 May 2015 | 3 years, 7 months and 10 days | Labour | |||
Jon Trickett [11] | 8 October 2013 | 14 September 2015 | 1 year, 11 months and 6 days | Labour | |||
Harman II | |||||||
Jonathan Ashworth [12] | 14 September 2015 | 7 October 2016 | 1 year and 23 days | Labour | Corbyn | ||
Andrew Gwynne [13] | 7 October 2016 | 14 June 2017 | 8 months and 7 days | Labour | |||
Ian Lavery | 9 February 2017 | 5 April 2020 | 3 years, 1 month and 27 days | Labour | |||
Vacant | 5 April 2020 | 4 December 2021 | 1 year, 7 months and 29 days | Labour | Starmer | ||
Conor McGinn [14] [15] | 4 December 2021 | 22 September 2022 | 9 months and 18 days | Labour | |||
Vacant | 23 September 2022 | 4 September 2023 | 11 months and 12 days | Labour | |||
Nick Thomas-Symonds [16] [15] | 4 September 2023 | Present | 11 days* | Labour |
* Incumbent's length of term last updated: 15 September 2023.
A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers, which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be cancelled in exceptional circumstances. Question time originated in the Westminster system of the United Kingdom, and occurs in other countries, mostly Commonwealth countries, who use the system.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Excluding the prime minister, the chancellor is the highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minister for the Cabinet Office. The role includes as part of its duties the administration of the estates and rents of the Duchy of Lancaster.
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.
A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and opposition benches, where crossbenchers sit in the chamber.
Gareth Richard Thomas is a British Labour politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow West since 1997. He is currently Shadow Minister for Trade on the Opposition frontbench. Thomas served as Minister of State for International Development and Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Consumer Affairs between 2008 and 2010. He was the Chair of the Co-operative Party from 2001 until 2019, and stands for election as a Labour and Co-operative candidate.
The Liberal Democrats are a political party in the United Kingdom. While in opposition, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats appoints a frontbench team of Members of Parliament (MPs), Peers, Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and Members of the Senedd (MSs), to speak for the party on different issues. Their areas of responsibility broadly corresponded to those of Government ministers. The frontbench team is divided into departmental sub-units, the principal ones being the economy, foreign policy, and home affairs. Sometimes the frontbench team consists of more than just the principal positions.
Conor Patrick McGinn is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for St Helens North since 2015. He was the Labour Party Deputy National Campaign Coordinator from June 2021 and Shadow Minister without Portfolio from December 2021 until September 2022. He was suspended by the party in December 2022 after a unspecified complaint was lodged against him.
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that promotes support for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Israeli Labor Party. LFI says it supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, with Israel recognised and secure within its borders, and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. As of July 2020, it comprises around one quarter of the Parliamentary Labour Party and one third of the Shadow Cabinet.
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.
The Commons members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) elected 19 members of the Shadow Cabinet from among their number in 2010. This follows the Labour Party's defeat at the 2010 general election, after which the party formed the Official Opposition in the United Kingdom.
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.
Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth is a British politician who has served as Shadow Paymaster General since September 2023. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester South since 2011.
Dame Amanda Anne Milling is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cannock Chase since the 2015 general election. She served as Minister without Portfolio in the UK cabinet and, alongside Ben Elliot, as Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party from February 2020 to September 2021. She also served as Minister of State for Asia and the Middle East from September 2021 to September 2022. She previously worked in market research. Milling lives at Rugeley in her constituency.
Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds is a British academic, barrister and politician who has been Shadow Minister without Portfolio since 2023. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Torfaen since 2015.
Jeremy Corbyn assumed the position of Leader of the Opposition after being elected as leader of the Labour Party on 12 September 2015; the election was triggered by Ed Miliband's resignation following the Labour Party's electoral defeat at the 2015 general election when David Cameron formed a majority Conservative government. The usual number of junior shadow ministers were also appointed.
Alexander James Jordan Norris is a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Nottingham North, and was first elected at the 2017 general election.
Keir Starmer became Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom after being elected as Leader of the Labour Party on 4 April 2020. He appointed his Shadow Cabinet on 5 and 6 April. Starmer has reshuffled his Shadow Cabinet five times: in June 2020, May 2021, June 2021, November 2021 and September 2023.
In the United Kingdom, the minister without portfolio is often a cabinet position, and is sometimes used to enable the chairman of the governing party, contemporarily either the chairman of the Conservative Party or the chair of the Labour Party to attend cabinet meetings. The sinecure positions of lord privy seal, paymaster general, and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster which have few responsibilities and have a higher rank in the order of precedence than minister without portfolio can also be used to similar effect. The office is currently held by Greg Hands.
The frontbench of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom consists of the Shadow Cabinet and other official shadow ministers of the political party currently serving as the Official Opposition. The Opposition front bench provide Parliamentary opposition to the British Government front bench, and is currently the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer since April 2020.
There is no doubt that David Cameron has had a terrible year, writes Shadow Minister without Portfolio, Lord Wood of Anfield.