Great Offices of State
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The Great Offices of State in the United Kingdom are the four most senior and prestigious posts in the British parliamentary system of government.[1]
They are the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary.[1][2][3] Since 27 June 2007, these posts are held by Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, David Miliband and Jacqui Smith respectively.
According to convention, when the Prime Minister names his or her Cabinet, either after a general election or mid-term reshuffle, the first announced Cabinet ministers will be the Chancellor, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, and usually in that order.
James Callaghan is the only person to date to have served in all four positions.[1] In the past hundred years, several other people came close to approaching this distinction: Herbert Henry Asquith and Winston Churchill both served as Chancellor, Prime Minister and Home Secretary while Harold Macmillan and John Major served as Prime Minister, Chancellor and Foreign Secretary. Rab Butler and Sir John Simon served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary.
Only three women have held any of the Great Offices of State:
- Margaret Thatcher - Prime Minister (1979-1990)
- Margaret Beckett - Foreign Secretary (2006-2007)
- Jacqui Smith - Home Secretary (2007-)
Because of how politics in the United Kingdom is now structured, with the House of Commons retaining most of the power, it is accepted that it is no longer practical for one of the holders of the Great Offices of State to be a member of the House of Lords. The House of Lords has traditionally been restrained in the passage of financial bills, meaning that the office of Chancellor is effectively limited to the House of Commons. The last holders of the other positions to have been peers were—
- Prime Minister: The Earl of Home 20 October-23 October 1963 - The Earl of Home renounced his peerage and was elected as an MP after his appointment as Prime Minister.
- Foreign Secretary: Lord Carrington May 5, 1979-April 5, 1982 - Baron Carrington was the last peer to hold one of the Great Offices of State.
- Home Secretary: Viscount Cave December 11, 1916-14 January 1919 - Sir George Cave was enobled as Viscount Cave while serving as Home Secretary in 1918.
In 2007, some functions of the Home Office were transferred to the Department of Constitutional Affairs, which was renamed the Ministry of Justice. At that time, the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs was also Lord High Chancellor, which position had for centuries been held by a peer. Following the cabinet reshuffle in 2007 after Gordon Brown's accession as Prime Minister, it was announced that in future the Secretary of State for Justice (and therefore also the Lord Chancellor) would be chosen from the Commons. Jack Straw, the current Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, appeared to make reference to the fact that this new post, previously held by a member of the House of Lords, could be considered a fifth Great Office, saying that he was "the first holder of this great office of state to sit in the Commons."[4] So far, there is no consensus in favour of such a view among constitutional analysts.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c Lord Callaghan. politics.guardian.co.uk. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2008-06-10. “He had held all four of the great offices of state”
- ^ Open Politics. news.bbc.co.uk. BBC News. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
- ^ Article by John Rentoul. comment.independent.co.uk. The Independent. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
- ^ Lord Mayor's annual judges dinner. www.justice.gov.uk. Ministry of Justice. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
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