Financial Secretary to the Treasury explained

Post:	Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Insignia:	Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government) (2022).svg
Insigniacaption:	Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Department:	His Majesty's Treasury
Incumbent:	Lord Livermore
Incumbentsince:	8 July 2024
Nominator:	Prime Minister
Appointer:	The King
Termlength:	At His Majesty's pleasure
Inaugural:	Thomas Harley
Formation:	11 June 1711
Reports To:	First Lord of the Treasury Chancellor of the Exchequer & Second Lord of the Treasury

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury is a mid-level ministerial post in HM Treasury. It is nominally the fifth most significant ministerial role within the Treasury after the first lord of the Treasury, the chancellor of the Exchequer, the chief secretary to the Treasury, and the paymaster general. However, the role of First Lord of the Treasury is always held by the prime minister who is not a Treasury minister, and the position of Paymaster General is a sinecure often held by the Minister for the Cabinet Office to allow the holder of that office to draw a government salary. In practice it is, therefore, the third most senior Treasury minister and has attended Cabinet in the past.

The current holder of the position is Lord Livermore, who was appointed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer following the Labour Party’s victory in the 2024 General Election.^[1] The position is shadowed by the shadow financial secretary to the treasury.

History

The role of Financial Secretary to the Treasury was created in 1711 and was known as the Junior Secretary to the Treasury to help deal with the increasing workload of the Senior Secretary to the Treasury. The first Junior Secretary to the Treasury is recorded as Thomas Harley who was appointed on 11 June 1711. The position has continued without any major interruption to the present day. Initially when the position of Senior Secretary to the Treasury became vacant not as the result of an election of change of government the Junior Secretary was usually automatically promoted to the senior role. Over time however, the roles of the Senior and Junior Secretaries began to diverge with the Senior Secretary post being used as a sinecure post for the Chief Whip, with no formal responsibilities to the Treasury. The Junior Secretary however remained a substantive position working in the Treasury. As such the Senior Secretary became known as the 'Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury' while the Junior Secretary became known as the 'Financial Secretary to the Treasury' and the 'automatic' promotion from Junior to Senior ceased. While the exact date this change occurred is disputed it is agreed that by 1830 the distinction was complete.^[2]

In 1923 Sir William Joynson-Hicks became the–to date–only Financial Secretary to serve in the Cabinet due to the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, also concurrently serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In May 2010 as part of the ministerial reorganisation by the First Cameron ministry, the Financial Secretary was given the additional semi-official title of City Minister. This position was retained until April 2014 when following the promotion of Sajid Javid to Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport the portfolio of City Minister was moved from the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

Appointment to the position of Financial Secretary to the Treasury is often considered an important stepping stone in a politician's career; six of the ten most recent holders of the office have gone on to hold Cabinet-level positions.

Notable former Financial Secretaries to the Treasury include Lord Frederick Cavendish, Austen Chamberlain, Stanley Baldwin, Enoch Powell, Nigel Lawson, and Norman Lamont.

Current role

The current responsibilities of the Financial Secretary to the Treasury include Departmental responsibility for the Office for National Statistics, and the Royal Mint. The Financial Secretary to the Treasury had Departmental responsibility for HM Customs & Excise until the merger with the Inland Revenue to form HM Revenue & Customs.

List of financial secretaries to the Treasury since 1830

see Secretary to the Treasury for earlier incumbents

Colour key (for political parties):

Financial Secretary			Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister		Chancellor
		Thomas Spring Rice	26 November 1830	6 June 1834	Whig		Earl Grey	Viscount Althorp
		Francis Baring	6 June 1834	14 November 1834	Whig
						Viscount Melbourne
Office not in use			15 November 1834 – 19 December 1834				Duke of Wellington	Lord Denman
		Thomas Fremantle	20 December 1834	April 1835	Conservative or Tory		Peel	Peel
			Francis Baring	21 April 1835	26 August 1839	Whig		Viscount Melbourne	Spring Rice
		Robert Gordon	6 September 1839	1841	Whig	Baring
		Richard More O'Ferrall	9 June 1841	30 August 1841	Whig
		George Clerk	8 September 1841	1845	Conservative		Peel	Goulburn
		Edward Cardwell	4 February 1845	29 June 1846	Conservative
		John Parker	7 July 1846	1849	Whig		Lord John Russell	Wood
		William Goodenough Hayter	22 May 1849	1850	Whig
		George Cornewall Lewis	9 July 1850	1852	Whig
		George Alexander Hamilton	2 March 1852	1852	Conservative		Earl of Derby	Disraeli
		James Wilson	5 January 1853	19 February 1858	Whig		Earl of Aberdeen	Gladstone
						Viscount Palmerston	Lewis
		George Alexander Hamilton	2 March 1858	1859	Conservative		Earl of Derby	Disraeli
		Stafford Northcote	21 January 1859	1859	Conservative
		Samuel Laing	24 June 1859	1860	Liberal		Viscount Palmerston	Gladstone
		Frederick Peel	2 November 1860	1865	Liberal
		Hugh Childers	19 August 1865	26 June 1866	Liberal
						Earl Russell
			14 July 1866	29 February 1868	Conservative		Earl of Derby	Disraeli
			4 March 1868	1 December 1868	Conservative		Disraeli
		Acton Smee Ayrton	9 December 1868	1869	Liberal		Gladstone	Lowe
		James Stansfeld	2 November 1869	1871	Liberal
		William Edward Baxter	17 March 1871	11 August 1873	Liberal
		John Dodson	11 August 1873	1874	Liberal	Gladstone
		William Henry Smith	21 February 1874	1877	Conservative		Disraeli	Northcote
		Frederick Stanley	14 August 1877	1878	Conservative
		Henry Selwin-Ibbetson	2 April 1878	21 April 1880	Conservative
			28 April 1880	1882	Liberal		Gladstone	Gladstone
			6 May 1882	12 December 1884	Liberal
Childers
			J. T. Hibbert	12 December 1884	9 June 1885	Liberal
		Henry Holland	24 June 1885	1885	Conservative		Marquess of Salisbury	Hicks Beach
		Matthew White Ridley	1885	1886	Conservative
		William Jackson	1886	28 January 1886	Conservative
			6 February 1886	20 July 1886	Liberal		Gladstone	Harcourt
		William Jackson	3 August 1886	1891	Conservative		Marquess of Salisbury	Lord Randolph Churchill
Viscount Goschen
				9 November 1891	11 August 1892	Conservative
		J. T. Hibbert	18 August 1892	22 June 1895	Liberal		Gladstone	Harcourt
						Earl of Rosebery
			29 June 1895	1900	Conservative		Marquess of Salisbury	Hicks Beach
		Austen Chamberlain	7 November 1900	11 August 1902	Liberal Unionist		Marquess of Salisbury	Hicks Beach
						Balfour
			11 August 1902	April 1903	Conservative		Ritchie
		Arthur Elliot	10 April 1903	9 October 1903	Conservative
		Victor Cavendish	9 October 1903	5 December 1905	Conservative		A. Chamberlain
		Reginald McKenna	12 December 1905	23 January 1907	Liberal		Campbell-Bannerman	Asquith
		Walter Runciman	29 January 1907	1908	Liberal
		Charles Hobhouse	12 April 1908	1911	Liberal		Asquith	Lloyd George
		Thomas McKinnon Wood	23 October 1911	13 February 1912	Liberal
		Charles Masterman	13 February 1912	11 February 1914	Liberal
		Edwin Montagu	11 February 1914	3 February 1915	Liberal
		Francis Dyke Acland	3 February 1915	25 May 1915	Liberal
		Edwin Montagu	26 May 1915	9 July 1916	Liberal	Asquith	McKenna
		Thomas McKinnon Wood	9 July 1916	5 December 1916	Liberal
		Hardman Lever	15 December 1916	19 May 1919	None		Lloyd George	Law A. Chamberlain
		Stanley Baldwin	18 June 1917	1 April 1921	Conservative
		Hilton Young	21 April 1921	19 October 1922	Liberal	Horne
		John Hills	6 November 1922	1923	Conservative		Law	Baldwin
		Archibald Boyd-Carpenter	12 March 1923	May 1923	Conservative
		William Joynson-Hicks	25 May 1923	27 August 1923	Conservative		Baldwin
		Walter Guinness	5 October 1923	1923	Conservative	N. Chamberlain
		William Graham	23 January 1924	4 November 1924	Labour		MacDonald	Snowden
		Walter Guinness	11 November 1924	5 November 1925	Conservative		Baldwin	Churchill
		Ronald McNeill	5 November 1925	1 November 1927	Conservative
		Arthur Samuel	1 November 1927	5 June 1929	Conservative
		Frederick Pethick-Lawrence	11 June 1929	August 1931	Labour		MacDonald	Snowden
		Walter Elliot	24 August 1931	29 September 1932	Unionist		MacDonald
MacDonald						N. Chamberlain
			Leslie Hore-Belisha	29 September 1932	29 June 1934		Liberal National
			Duff Cooper	29 June 1934	22 November 1935		Conservative
	Baldwin
			William Morrison	22 November 1935	29 October 1936		Conservative
			John Colville	29 October 1936	1938		Unionist
	N. Chamberlain					Simon
			Euan Wallace	16 May 1938	21 April 1939		Conservative
			Harry Crookshank	21 April 1939	7 February 1943		Conservative
	N. Chamberlain
	Churchill					Wood
			Ralph Assheton	7 February 1943	29 October 1944		Conservative
Anderson
				Osbert Peake	29 October 1944	26 July 1945	Conservative
	Churchill
		William Glenvil Hall	4 August 1945	2 March 1950	Labour		Attlee	Dalton
Cripps
			Douglas Jay	2 March 1950	26 October 1951	Labour
Gaitskell
		John Boyd-Carpenter	30 October 1951	28 July 1954	Conservative		Churchill	Butler
		Henry Brooke	28 July 1954	January 1957	Conservative
						Eden
Macmillan
		Enoch Powell	14 January 1957	15 January 1958	Conservative		Macmillan	Thorneycroft
		Jack Simon	15 January 1958	22 October 1959	Conservative	Heathcoat-Amory
		Edward Boyle	22 October 1959	16 July 1962	Conservative
Lloyd
		Anthony Barber	16 July 1962	20 October 1963	Conservative	Maudling
		Alan Green	23 October 1963	16 October 1964	Conservative			Douglas-Home
		Niall MacDermot	21 October 1964	29 August 1967	Labour		Wilson	Callaghan
		Harold Lever	29 August 1967	13 October 1969	Labour
Jenkins
			Dick Taverne	13 October 1969	19 June 1970	Labour
		Patrick Jenkin	19 June 1970	7 April 1972	Conservative		Heath	Macleod
Barber
			Terrence Higgins	7 April 1972	4 March 1974	Conservative
		John Gilbert	8 March 1974	17 June 1975	Labour		Wilson	Healey
		Robert Sheldon	17 June 1975	4 May 1979	Labour
						Callaghan
		Nigel Lawson	4 May 1979	14 September 1981	Conservative		Thatcher	Howe
		Nicholas Ridley	September 1981	11 June 1983	Conservative
		John Moore	19 October 1983	21 May 1986	Conservative	Lawson
		Norman Lamont	21 May 1986	24 July 1989	Conservative
		Peter Lilley	24 July 1989	14 July 1990	Conservative
Major
		Francis Maude	14 July 1990	9 April 1992	Conservative		Major	Lamont
		Stephen Dorrell	11 April 1992	11 July 1994	Conservative
Clarke
			George Young	11 July 1994	5 July 1995	Conservative
			Michael Jack	5 July 1995	2 May 1997	Conservative
		Dawn Primarolo	2 May 1997	4 January 1999	Labour		Blair	Brown
		Barbara Roche	4 January 1999	29 July 1999	Labour
		Stephen Timms	29 July 1999	8 June 2001	Labour
		Paul Boateng	8 June 2001	May 2002	Labour
		Ruth Kelly	May 2002	9 September 2004	Labour
		Stephen Timms	12 September 2004	6 May 2005	Labour
		John Healey	6 May 2005	28 June 2007	Labour
		Jane Kennedy	28 June 2007	5 October 2008	Labour		Brown	Darling
		Stephen Timms	5 October 2008	11 May 2010	Labour
		Mark Hoban	13 May 2010	4 September 2012	Conservative		Cameron	Osborne
		Greg Clark	4 September 2012	7 October 2013	Conservative
		Sajid Javid	7 October 2013	9 April 2014	Conservative
		Nicky Morgan	9 April 2014	15 July 2014	Conservative
		David Gauke	15 July 2014	14 July 2016	Conservative
Cameron
		Jane Ellison	15 July 2016	9 June 2017	Conservative		May	Hammond
		Mel Stride	12 June 2017	23 May 2019	Conservative		May
		Jesse Norman	23 May 2019	16 September 2021	Conservative
						Johnson	Javid
Sunak
			Lucy Frazer	16 September 2021	7 September 2022		Conservative
Zahawi
		Andrew Griffith	8 September 2022	27 October 2022	Conservative		Truss	Kwarteng
Hunt
			Victoria Atkins	27 October 2022	13 November 2023	Conservative		Sunak
			Nigel Huddleston	13 November 2023	5 July 2024	Conservative
		Lord Livermore	8 July 2024	Incumbent	Labour		Starmer	Reeves

See also

• Secretary to the Treasury
• Chief Secretary to the Treasury

External links

• British History Online List of Secretaries to the Treasury
• Treasury Ministerial responsibilities

Notes and References

1. News: The Guardian . 8 July 2024 . Elgot . Jessica .
2. Web site: Secretaries 1660-1870. British History Online. 9 October 2016.