The deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom <!--"deputy prime minister" is uncapitalized per MOS:JOBTITLES because it is preceded by the modifier "the" and denotes a description, not a title-->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 leader of the governing party, or a key political ally of the prime minister.
It does not entail any specific legal or constitutional responsibilities, though the holder will normally be assigned some duties by the prime minister and in recent times this has typically always included deputising for the prime minister in the House of Commons, domestically and abroad. Appointment to the position is usually paired with appointment to a departmental secretary of state position. The title is not always in use and prime ministers have been known to appoint deputies with title first secretary of state or informal deputies without any honorific title.
The incumbent Deputy Prime Minister is David Lammy who has served under Keir Starmer since 5 September 2025. Lammy succeeded Starmer's first deputy, Angela Rayner, in a cabinet reshuffle following her resignation due to her involvement in a tax scandal.
Constitutional position
Deputy prime minister is a title It brings with it no salary and the holder of the title has no right to automatic succession to the premiership.
When Winston Churchill attempted to have Anthony Eden appointed deputy prime minister in 1951, George VI said that the 'office ... does not exist' and that conferring the title may be seen as an attempt to designate the prime minister's successor and thus may restrict the monarch's royal prerogative. However, Vernon Bogdanor has said that that argument holds little weight in the modern context, since the monarch no longer has any real discretion, and that, even in the past, a person acting as deputy prime minister had no real advantage to being appointed prime minister.
Responsibilities
The title is not always in use and the holder's responsibilities will vary depending on the circumstances. As of December 2024, the deputy prime minister's responsibilities include: deputising for the prime minister (in the House of Commons, domestically and internationally), supporting the prime minister, special responsibility for employment rights and cross-governmental coordination of communities policy. and was a matter of form rather than fact. The designation was because Churchill wanted to demonstrate the importance of the Labour party in the coalition, not for any reasons relating to succession; he actually left written advice that the King should send for Anthony Eden if he were to die, not Attlee. Unusually in comparison to other unofficial deputy prime ministers, Clement Attlee was described as deputy prime minister by Hansard, whereas other unofficial deputies are described using their official position. under David Cameron, and served in this role until he resigned after the Conservatives won a majority in the 2015 general election. During the coalition William Hague was appointed by Cameron as First Secretary of State, the only time that both these positions have existed concurrently but not been held by the same person. During this time Cameron described Hague rather than Clegg as being his 'de facto political deputy'. making him the first non-consecutive holder of the office. Raab resigned in April 2023 after the investigation into his alleged bullying was published, and was succeeded by deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, who resigned after the 2024 general election, whereupon he was replaced by Angela Rayner in Keir Starmer's Labour government. Following a cabinet reshuffle in September 2025, David Lammy would replace Rayner as the Deputy Prime Minister, becoming the first person of colour to hold the position.
Office and residence
There is no set of offices permanently ready to house the deputy prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg maintained an office at the Cabinet Office headquarters, 70 Whitehall, which is linked to 10 Downing Street. Clegg's predecessor, Prescott, maintained his main office at 26 Whitehall.
The prime minister may also give them the use of a grace and favour country house. While in office, Nick Clegg resided at his private residence in Putney and he shared Chevening House with First Secretary William Hague as a weekend residence. Clegg's predecessor, John Prescott, used Dorneywood.
List of deputy prime ministers
The following people have held the title of deputy prime minister.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Deputy prime ministers
! colspan="3" | Deputy Prime Minister
! colspan="2"| Term of office
! Duration
! Other ministerial portfolios held during tenure
! Party
! Ministry
|-
! style="background-color: " |
|158x158px
|Clement Attlee<br />
| <br />1942
| <br />1945
|
|
- Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
- Lord President of the Council
| | Labour
| | Churchill War
|- style="height:1em"
! colspan=3|Office vacant
| <br />1945
| <br />1995
|
! colspan=3|
|- style="height:1em"
! style="background-color: " |
| 120px
| Michael Heseltine<br />
| <br />1995
| <br />1997
|
|
- First Secretary of State
| | Conservative
| |Major II
|- style="height:1em"
! rowspan="3" style="background-color: " |
| rowspan="3" | 120px
| rowspan="3" | John Prescott<br />
| rowspan="3" | <br />1997
| rowspan="3" | <br />2007
| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3" |
- Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions
- First Secretary of State
- Secretary of State for Local Government and the Regions
| rowspan="3" | Labour
| |Blair I
|-
| |Blair II
|-
| |Blair III
|- style="height:1em"
! colspan=3|Office vacant
| <br />2007
| <br />2010
|
! colspan=3|
|- style="height:1em"
| style="background-color: " |
| 120px
| Nick Clegg<br />
| <br />2010
| <br />2015
|
|
- Lord President of the Council
| | Liberal Democrat
| | Cameron–Clegg
|- style="height:1em"
! colspan=3|Office vacant
| <br />2015
| <br />2021
|
! colspan=3|
|- style="height:1em"
| style="background-color: " |
| 120px
| Dominic Raab<br />
| <br />2021
| <br />2022
|
|
- Lord Chancellor
- Secretary of State for Justice
| rowspan="4" | Conservative
| |Johnson II
|- style="height:1em"
| style="background-color: " |
| 120px
| Thérèse Coffey<br />
| <br />2022
| <br />2022
|
|
- Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
| | Truss
|- style="height:1em"
| style="background-color: " |
| 160x160px
| Dominic Raab<br />
| <br />2022
| <br />2023
|
|
- Lord Chancellor
- Secretary of State for Justice
| rowspan="2" | Sunak
|- style="height:1em"
| style="background-color: " |
| 120px
| Oliver Dowden<br />
| <br />2023
| <br />2024
|
|
- Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- Secretary of State in the Cabinet Office
|-
|- style="height:1em"
| style="background-color: " |
| 120px
| Angela Rayner<br />
| <br />2024
| <br />2025
|
|
- Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
| rowspan="2" | Labour
| rowspan="2" | Starmer
|- style="height:1em"
| style="background-color: " |
|159x159px
|David Lammy<br>
|<br>2025
|Incumbent
|
|
- Lord Chancellor
- Secretary of State for Justice
|}
Timeline
Unofficial deputies
The prime minister's second-in-command has variably served as deputy prime minister, first secretary and de facto deputy and at other times prime ministers have chosen not to select a permanent deputy at all, preferring ad hoc arrangements. It has also been suggested that the office of Lord President of the Council (which comes with leading precedence) has been intermittently used for deputies in the past.
Lists
thumb|Anthony Eden is often described as Winston Churchill's deputy, though his appointment as deputy prime minister in 1951 was actually rejected by [[George VI|the King.]]
Picking out definitive deputies to the prime minister has been described as a highly problematic task.<!-- There are also apparently lists by Howard (1995) and Gay (2013). Seldon et al (2021) also includes some information about deputies, but it is difficult to write up in a form like below. -->
Bogdanor, in his 1995 publication The Monarchy and the Constitution, said that the following people had acted as deputy prime ministers (by this he meant they had chaired the Cabinet in the absence of the prime minister and chaired a number of key Cabinet Committees):
{| class="wikitable"
|Clement Attlee
|-
|Herbert Morrison
|-
|Anthony Eden
|-
|Rab Butler
|-
|George Brown
|-
|Michael Stewart
|-
|Reginald Maudling
|-
|William Whitelaw
|-
|Geoffrey Howe
|}
In an academic article first published in 2015, Jonathan Kirkup and Stephen Thornton used five criteria to identify deputies: gazetted or styled in Hansard as deputy prime minister; 'officially' designated deputy prime minister by the prime minister; widely recognised by their colleagues as deputy prime minister; second in the ministerial ranking; and chaired the Cabinet or took Prime Minister's Questions in the prime minister's absence. They said that the following people have the best claim to the position of deputy to the prime minister:
{| class="wikitable"
|Clement Attlee
|-
|Herbert Morrison
|-
|Anthony Eden
|-
|Rab Butler
|-
|George Brown
|-
|Michael Stewart
|-
|Willie Whitelaw
|-
|Geoffrey Howe
|-
|Michael Heseltine
|-
|John Prescott
|-
|Nick Clegg
|}
They also said that the following three people would have a reasonable claim:
{| class="wikitable"
|Andrew Bonar Law
|-
|Edward Short
|-
|Michael Foot
|}
Brazier has listed the following ministers as unambiguously deputy to or de facto deputies of the prime minister:
{| class="wikitable"
|Clement Attlee
|<small>1940–1945</small>
|-
|Anthony Eden
|<small>1945</small><br /><small>1951–1955</small>
|-
|Rab Butler
|<small>1955–1963</small>
|-
|George Brown
|<small>1964–1970</small>
|-
|Reginald Maudling
|<small>1970–1972</small>
|-
|Willie Whitelaw
|<small>1979–1988</small>
|-
|Geoffrey Howe
|<small>1989–1990</small>
|-
|Michael Heseltine
|<small>1995–1997</small>
|-
|John Prescott
|<small>1997–2007</small>
|-
|Nick Clegg
|<small>2010–2015</small>
|-
|George Osborne
|<small>2015–2016</small>
|-
|Damian Green
|<small>2017</small>
|-
|David Lidington
|<small>2018–2019</small>
|-
|Dominic Raab
|<small>2019–2022</small>
|}
Lord Norton of Louth has listed the following people as serving as deputy prime minister, but not being formally styled as such:
{| class="wikitable"
|Herbert Morrison
|<small>1945–1951</small>
|-
|Anthony Eden
|<small>1951–1955</small>
|-
|Rab Butler
|<small>1962–1963</small>
|-
|Willie Whitelaw
|<small>1979–1988</small>
|-
|Geoffrey Howe
|<small>1989–1990</small>
|-
|David Lidington
|<small>2018–2019</small>
|}
Succession
Nobody has the right of automatic succession to the prime ministership. However, it is generally considered that in the event of the death of the prime minister, it would be appropriate to appoint an interim prime minister, though there is some debate as to how to decide who this should be. In 2021, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case suggested:When the prime minister is travelling, it is standard practice for a senior duty minister to be appointed who can attend to urgent business and meetings if required, though the prime minister remains in charge and updated throughout. And, on 6 April 2020, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted into ICU, he asked First Secretary of State Dominic Raab "to deputise for him where necessary".
See also
- First Secretary of State
- Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)
Notes
References
- pp 176–192.
Further reading
- Barnes, S. "What About Me? Deputy Prime Ministership in New Zealand." Political Science 61#1 (2009): 33–49. doi:10.1177/00323187090610010401.
- Blick, A., and G. Jones. Premiership: The Development, Nature and Power of the Office of the British Prime Minister (Imprint Academic, 2010).
- Gay, O. The Office of Deputy Prime Minister (Parliament and Constitution Centre, 2013). online.
- McKinstry, L. Attlee and Churchill: Allies in War, Adversaries in Peace (Atlantic, 2019).
- Machaliński, Zbigniew. "Activity of Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Treasury in Years 1935–1939." Studia Gdańskie. Wizje i rzeczywistość 16 (2019): 79–96, in Poland. onlinr
- Spark, Ceridwen, and Jack Corbett. "Fiamē Naomi Mata 'afa: Sāmoa's First Female Deputy Prime Minister." The Journal of Pacific History 55.4 (2020): 453–474.
- Thomas, T. L., and Law Enforcement. "Anatoliy Sergeerich Kulikov: Policeman, Power Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Politician?." in Low Intensity Conflict and Law Enforcement (1998): 149–178. in Russia. see Anatoly Kulikov
- Thornton, Stephen. "The brace of the Cabinet: the legacy of Clement Attlee as deputy prime minister," Contemporary British History, (2024) 1–24; in UK 1940–45. DOI: 10.1080/13619462.2024.2305459