Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Arms of Her Majesty's Government
Incumbent Nick Clegg since 11 May 2010
Style	The Right Honourable
Appointer	The Sovereign on advice of the Prime Minister
Inaugural holder	Clement Attlee
Formation	19 February 1942
Website	Official website

The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a senior member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Prime Minister, who may appoint to other offices – such as First Secretary of State – to give seniority to a particular Cabinet Minister. The current Deputy Prime Minister is Nick Clegg, who was also appointed Lord President of the Council along with special responsibility for constitutional and political reform.

Unlike analogous offices in some other nations, including the United States Vice Presidency, a British deputy prime minister possesses no special powers as such, though they will always have particular responsibilities in government. They do not assume the duties and powers of the Prime Minister in the latter's absence or illness, such as the powers to seek a dissolution of parliament, appoint peers or brief the sovereign. They do not automatically succeed the Prime Minister, should the latter be incapacitated or resign from the leadership of his or her political party. In practice, however, the designation of someone to the role of Deputy Prime Minister may provide additional practical status within cabinet, enabling the exercise of de facto, if not de jure, power. In a coalition government, such as the current one between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, the appointment of the leader of the smaller party (in the current case, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats) as Deputy Prime Minister is done to give that person more authority within the cabinet to enforce the coalition's agreed-upon agenda. The Deputy Prime Minister usually deputises for the Prime Minister at official functions, such as Prime Minister's Questions.

Current officeholder

On 11 May 2010 Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister^[1] with David Cameron as Prime Minister in a formal coalition government.

Absence of the office in the constitution

Many theories exist as to the absence of a formal post of Deputy Prime Minister in Britain's uncodified constitution. Theoretically the sovereign possesses the unrestricted right to choose someone to form a government^{[Note 1]} following the death, resignation or dismissal of a Prime Minister.^{[Note 2][2]} One argument made to justify the non-existence of a permanent deputy premiership is that such an office-holder would be seen as possessing a presumption of succession to the premiership, thereby effectively limiting the sovereign's right to choose a prime minister.^{[Note 3]}

However, only two Deputy Prime Ministers have gone on to become Prime Minister. Clement Attlee won the 1945 general election and succeeded Winston Churchill after their coalition broke up but only after a two-month interval when Attlee was not a member of the government. Anthony Eden succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister not because he had been Deputy Prime Minister, but because he had long been seen as Churchill's heir apparent and natural successor. The intermittent existence of a Deputy Prime Minister has been on occasion so informal that there have been a number of occasions on which dispute has arisen as to whether or not the title has actually been conferred.

The position of Deputy Prime Minister is not recognised in UK law, so any post-holder must be given an additional title in order to have legal status and to be paid a salary. The present Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, was appointed Lord President of the Council, a ministerial title with few formal responsibilities, for this reason. On some occasions the post of First Secretary of State has been used; when John Prescott lost his departmental responsibilities in a reshuffle in 2005 he was given the office to enable him to retain a ministerial post, and Michael Heseltine was similarly appointed.

Choice

The Deputy Prime Ministership, where it exists, may bring with it practical influence depending on the status of the holder, rather than the status of the position.

Labour Party leader Clement Attlee held the post in the wartime coalition government led by Winston Churchill, and had general responsibility for domestic affairs, allowing Churchill to concentrate on the war. Rab Butler held the post in 1962/63 under Harold Macmillan, but was passed over for the premiership in favour of Alec Douglas-Home.

During the Labour Government 1964–1970, the office of First Secretary of State was preferred to that of Deputy Prime Minister. During the Heath and Wilson administrations of the 1970s, the title of Deputy Prime Minister was not formally used. In his Memoirs, Home Secretary Reginald Maudling describes himself as Deputy Prime Minister under Heath from 1970 to his resignation in 1972 over the Poulson affair. William Armstrong, head of the Civil Service, was also called Heath's Deputy Prime Minister.^[3] The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Ted Short, was Leader of the House of Commons from 1974 to 1976 and often thought of as Deputy Prime Minister; he was referred to as such in the citation for being made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne.

William Whitelaw was Margaret Thatcher's deputy from 1979–1988, a post he combined with that of Home Secretary in 1979–83 and Leader of the House of Lords after 1983. Sir Geoffrey Howe was given the title in 1989, on being removed from the post of Foreign Secretary. He resigned as Deputy Prime Minister in 1990, making a resignation speech that is widely thought to have hastened Thatcher's downfall. Thatcher's successor John Major did not appoint a Deputy Prime Minister until 1995, when Michael Heseltine was given the post.

John Prescott, who was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in opposition, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister by Tony Blair in 1997, in addition to being Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions. In 2001 this "superdepartment" was split up, with Prescott being given his own Office of the Deputy Prime Minister with fewer specific responsibilities. In May 2006 the department was removed from the control of the Deputy Prime Minister and renamed as the Department for Communities and Local Government with Ruth Kelly as the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, he did not appoint a Deputy Prime Minister. However, in his third cabinet reshuffle in June 2009, Lord Mandelson was appointed as First Secretary of State effectively becoming the Deputy Prime Minister in all but name.

Following the 2010 general election, which returned a hung parliament, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to form a coalition government. As leader of the smaller of the two parties in the coalition, Nick Clegg was appointed Deputy Prime Minister on the advice of the new Prime Minister, Conservative leader David Cameron.

Residence and office

The current Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg maintains an office at the Cabinet Office headquarters, 70 Whitehall, which is linked to 10 Downing Street.^[4] The previous Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, maintained his main office at 26 Whitehall.^[5]

Given that there is no constitutional office of Deputy Prime Minister, with the position being recreated on a case by case basis, the person who holds the post has no official residence. As a cabinet minister however they may have the use of a grace and favour London residence and country house. The London home of the current Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has not yet been confirmed but he will share Chevening House with Foreign Secretary William Hague.^[6] His predecessor, John Prescott, had the use of a flat in Admiralty House and used Dorneywood as his country residence.

List of Deputy Prime Ministers

Colour key (for political parties):
Politicians:       Conservative       Labour       Liberal Democrats
Governments:       Single party government       Coalition government

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Ministerial Offices	Political party and position		Prime Minister
	Clement Attlee		19 February 1942	23 May 1945	Deputy Prime Minister Dominions Secretary (until 1943) Lord President of the Council (from 1943)	Labour (Leader) Junior leader in a Coalition Government		•		Winston Churchill
Office Not in Use			23 May 1945	26 July 1945				•
	Herbert Morrison		26 July 1945	26 October 1951	Deputy Prime Minister Lord President of the Council (until 1951) Leader of the House of Commons (until 1951) Foreign Secretary (from 1951)	Labour (Deputy Leader)		•		Clement Attlee
	Anthony Eden		26 October 1951	6 April 1955	Deputy Prime Minister Foreign Secretary	Conservative		•		Winston Churchill
Office Not in Use			1955–1962					•		Anthony Eden
								•		Harold Macmillan
	R. A. Butler		13 July 1962	18 October 1963	Deputy Prime Minister First Secretary of State	Conservative
Office Not in Use			1963–1979					• • • • •		Home Wilson Heath Wilson Callaghan
	William Whitelaw (Viscount Whitelaw from 1983)		4 May 1979	10 January 1988	Deputy Prime Minister Home Secretary (1979–1983) Lord President of the Council (from 1983) Leader of the House of Lords (from 1983)	Conservative		•		Margaret Thatcher
	Sir Geoffrey Howe		24 July 1989	1 November 1990	Deputy Prime Minister Lord President of the Council Leader of the House of Commons	Conservative
Office Not in Use			1990–1995					•		John Major
	Michael Heseltine		20 July 1995	2 May 1997	Deputy Prime Minister First Secretary of State	Conservative
	John Prescott		2 May 1997	27 June 2007	Deputy Prime Minister Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (until 2001) First Secretary of State (from 2001)	Labour (Deputy Leader)		•		Tony Blair
Office Not in Use			2007–2010					•		Gordon Brown
	Nick Clegg		11 May 2010	Incumbent	Deputy Prime Minister Lord President of the Council[7][8] Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform	Liberal Democrats (Leader) Junior leader in a Coalition Government		•		David Cameron

Footnotes

1. ^ In the British constitutional tradition, the sovereign invites someone to form a government "capable of surviving in the House of Commons". This is not the same as having a majority. In theory a minority government could survive if the opposition parties were divided on issues and so failed to all vote together against the government. In times of national emergency, sovereigns set a different, higher standard, namely that a government be formed "capable of commanding a majority in the House of Commons." In the event of no party possessing a majority, this forces the party invited to form a government to enter into a coalition with another party. This latter request was made on only a handful of cases, most notably in 1916 when King George V invited Andrew Bonar Law to form a government, who declined so the King invited David Lloyd George to form a government. Lloyd George was forced by the nature of his commission to form a coalition government.
2. ^ No Prime Minister has been dismissed by a sovereign since 1834. Except in exceptional circumstances it is thought unlikely that a prime minister would ever be dismissed.^[2]
3. ^ In practice the monarch's choice has been limited by the evolution of a clear party structure, with each party possessing a structure by which leaders are elected. Only where no party has a majority, or where a division exists between the person chosen by the party's electoral college and its MPs on who should be prime minister, can a modern sovereign expect to freely choose on whom to appoint.

References

1. ^ "Nick Clegg appointed Deputy Prime Minister". Number10.gov.uk. 2010-05-12. http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/latest-news/2010/05/appointment-of-nick-clegg-as-deputy-prime-minister-49926. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Stanley de Smith and Rodney Brazier, Constitutional and Administrative Law (Penguin, 1989) p.116.
3. ^ Ziegler, Philip. "How the last Tory-Liberal deal fell apart" The Sunday Times, 9 May 2010.
4. ^ "Nick Clegg could be given use of stately home where John Prescott played croquet". Telegraph. 2010-05-13. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/nick-clegg/7715846/Nick-Clegg-could-be-given-use-of-stately-home-where-John-Prescott-played-croquet.html. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 
5. ^ "Deputy Prime Minister | Contact us". Archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk. http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/dpm/ContactUs.html. Retrieved 2010-05-22. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "Hague and Clegg given timeshare of official residence". BBC News. 2010-05-18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8689187.stm. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 
7. ^ Clegg To Be Cameron's Deputy In New Cabinet Sky News
8. ^ Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg to be deputy PM Reuters

External links

• The website of the Deputy Prime Minister