The Deputy Prime Minister

“There is no set or binding role for the Deputy Prime Minister within the British constitution.” – Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP Government of the United Kingdom, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source UK National Archives

Origins

Since 1989, Britain has had more years with a Deputy Prime Minister than without. What is this position? What do they do? And why did it come into being?

For much of the history of the British Premiership, the Office of Deputy Prime Minister did not exist. It was only during the Second World War that Clement Attlee was ‘styled’ Deputy Prime Minister, taking over much of Churchill’s domestic work and allowing him to concentrate on the war.

Clement Attlee:
‘I acted for Churchill on the fairly numerous occasions when he was absent from the country at various conferences. This gave me valuable experience for the future. It fell to me not infrequently to have to announce bad news to the House of Commons.’ (Attlee, p. 176).

Once the war was over, George VI was keen that normal constitutional procedure reassert. When Winston Churchill suggested that Eden become Deputy Prime Minister in 1951, George VI responded that the office ‘does not exist in the British constitutional hierarchy’.

During Prime Ministerial history, particularly during the 18^th and 19^th Centuries, there was a natural alliance between the Leader of the House of Lords and the Leader of the House of Commons, with one the Prime Minister and the other, effectively, the deputy. One example of this is Lord Derby and Benjamin Disraeli as a political double act during the 1850s and 1860s. Until 1911, the two Houses had equal legislative power, and the Lords had not been formally subordinated to the Commons. Government required skilled leadership in both, and it was perfectly acceptable for a peer to serve as Prime Minister. Though the Deputy Prime Minister position did not exist, a frequent leader and deputy relationship at the top of politics certainly did.

Moreover, for much of the post-war era, Deputy Prime Minister was more of a de facto position than de jure. Willie Whitelaw (1979-88), Michael Stewart (1968-70), ‘Rab’ Butler (1957-63), and Herbert Morrison (1945-51), were all understood by colleagues to be the PM’s deputy. But they were never referred to as Deputy Prime Minister in Hansard or really understood as having that particular title.

In some ways, the development of the title of Deputy Prime Minister resembles that of the development of the Prime Minister’s title itself, which, for the first two centuries of the office’s existence, was not ‘known to law’. It is only in more modern times, during the tenure of Geoffrey Howe (1989-90), Michael Heseltine (1995-97), John Prescott (1997-2007), Nick Clegg (2010-15), Dominic Raab (2021-22, 2022-23), Thérèse Coffey (2022), and Oliver Dowden (2023-), that the position has become a formal title.

Duties

The 2011 Cabinet Manual describes the Deputy Prime Minister:

The Deputy Prime Minister 3.11
The title of Deputy Prime Minister is sometimes given to a senior minister in the Government, for example the deputy leader of the party in government or the leader of the smaller party in a coalition. The role of the Deputy Prime Minister is sometimes combined with other roles, but responsibilities will vary according to the circumstances. For example, in 2010 the role of the Deputy Prime Minister was combined with that of Lord President of the Council, with ministerial responsibility for political and constitutional reform. The fact that a person has the title of Deputy Prime Minister does not constrain the Sovereign’s power to appoint a successor to a Prime Minister.

The truth is that the Deputy Prime Minister can be as powerful or as ineffective as the Prime Minister and political circumstances allow. Like most parts of the British system, there is a remarkable flexibility.

The Deputy Prime Ministers often chair important Cabinet Committees. At the Cabinet table, seniority dictates where ministers sit in relation to the Prime Minister. As nominal deputy, the Deputy Prime Minister will sit next to the PM.

The Deputy Prime Minister usually deputises for the PM when they are absent. Prescott and Clegg often did Prime Minister’s Questions in Blair’s and Cameron’s absences. However, the deputy role can be performed by any Secretary of State that the PM chooses and need not be the Deputy Prime Minister.

Michael Heseltine:
‘Although the deputy is nominally in charge while the Prime Minister is away, it was very rare that the substance of this transfer of responsibility ever mattered in the conduct of policy.’ (Heseltine, p. 498).

According to the Institute for Government: ‘A prime minister might also use a close ally to act as a de facto deputy or ‘fixer’, and delegate aspects of the prime minister’s role to them. This might include chasing progress on key policies and, particularly, cross-cutting issues, brokering deals between departments and chairing meetings and committees.’ Similarly, John Prescott wrote in his memoir that one of his roles was ‘acting as enforcer…when Tony wanted things done, leaving him to worry about the bigger picture’.

One of the main purposes of the Deputy Prime Minister is to strengthen the government. It is an important symbolic position, indicating that the holder is influential. As such, it has been used by Coalition governments, with Attlee and Clegg holding the position as the main representative of the Coalition’s junior political partner.

Clegg was able to influence government policy, because he commanded the Liberal Democrat MPs, without whom the government had no majority. As he wrote in his memoir, ‘I was able to wield a veto over much of government policy…every single decision over the five years required agreement from both me and the Prime Minister’.

During Tony Blair’s government over 1997-2007, John Prescott was embedded in the government as Deputy Prime Minister. He was a crucial link to old Labour and a reassuring presence for the left of the Labour Party, who knew that he was a key influence.

However, it would be incorrect to suggest that the Deputy Prime Minister has always been a respected and effectual position. Goeffrey Howe effectively revived the title, when he asked to be Deputy Prime Minister in 1989. However, he found the role frustrating. Margaret Thatcher later wrote that the Deputy Prime Minister ‘is a title with no constitutional significance and in practical terms it just meant that Geoffrey sat on my immediate left at Cabinet meetings’. Frustrated, Howe soon resigned, and with his explosive resignation speech, he began the chain of events that brought Thatcher down.

During the 2010s, Nick Clegg was no doubt an important figure in the government, but his popularity, which had been very high during the 2010 election, plummeted. In 2015, his Liberal Democrat party suffered a major defeat, losing most of its seats, and 65% of its voters.

Sir Geoffrey Howe - former British Conservative politician. — Sir Geoffrey Howe is a former British Conservative politician. Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe. **Credit:** David Cole / Alamy Stock Photo

Perks

There is no Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, as there is for the other Cabinet ministers, but as necessary, they will be assigned support staff. Blair created such an office for Prescott. Nick Clegg attempted to run a small office in his early days as Deputy Prime Minister, but found the experience ‘physically draining’ and ‘politically debilitating’. He soon built up a Civil Service staff of assistants by 2012.

The Deputy Prime Minister position does not carry a salary. Those who have held the post have usually received a salary from another. For example, Clegg was Lord President of the Council and John Prescott was Environment Secretary and First Secretary of State.

The Deputy Prime Minister is often provided a grace-and-favour residence in one of the flats of Admiralty House in London. Nick Clegg chose not to take it, and instead commuted from his home in London. John Prescott did choose to live in the Admiralty House flat. However, when he arrived with his wife to move in, he found that the Civil Service had not been informed and had cleared the flat of all its furniture.

The Deputy Prime Minister also tends to share one of the grace-and-favour country houses -Chevening and Dorneywood – with another minister of state (commonly the Chancellor for Dorneywood or the Foreign Secretary for Chevening). In 1997, Chancellor Gordon Brown felt awkward about using a country house like Dorneywood, while Prescott felt no such concerns, later writing ‘That’s what it’s meant for’.

Succession?

What of succession? In the United States, the most important purpose of a Vice President is to be ‘a heartbeat away from the Presidency’. Fifteen Vice Presidents have gone on to become President, nine due to the death or resignation of the sitting President, and six have won elections (including four who were Vice President during the election campaign). Alas, the prospects for promotion from Deputy Prime Minister in Britain are nowhere near so positive.

There is no legally defined line of succession in Britain if a Prime Minister were to suddenly die or resign, as there is in America and many other countries. Most likely, an interim successor would be chosen from the Cabinet, and a party leadership contest would occur. Historically, this was somewhat easier – especially when there was an obvious successor. When Spencer Perceval was assassinated in 1812, the Cabinet agreed that the leader of the House of Lords, Lord Liverpool was the best placed to succeed him. Almost a century later, when Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman stepped down due to ill health, the choice of Chancellor H. H. Asquith, was an obvious one.

But none of these people were Deputy Prime Minister. In fact, only one formal Deputy Prime Ministers has ever become Prime Minister. He also did it the hard way. In 1945, Clement Attlee told Churchill that, with the end of the war in Europe, the coalition must end and a general election would follow. He won the election, becoming Prime Minister. Additionally, Anthony Eden was understood to be Churchill’s deputy, and became Prime Minister in 1955.

The Deputy Prime Minister is not necessarily the next in line if the PM is to depart the scene. Churchill gave instructions during the war that Eden would succeed him if he were to suddenly die, not Deputy Prime Minister Attlee. During the 2010s, Nick Clegg did not have the political support of enough MPs because he was Liberal Democrat leader, and had Cameron left office, he would have been replaced by another Conservative. Thérèse Coffey was Liz Truss’s Deputy Prime Minister but was not considered during the subsequent leadership contest.

Indeed, it is quite useful for the Prime Minister to have somebody as Deputy Prime Minister who is not ambitious. One of Prescott’s strengths as Deputy Prime Minister was that, because, by his own account, he had no ambition to be PM himself, he could act as a mediator between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

During the 1980s, Michael Heseltine had had a strong ambition to become Prime Minister, even challenging Thatcher for the role. But he became Deputy Prime Minister in John Major’s government after the 1995 Conservative leadership election, after which there was no opportunity anymore for Heseltine (or anybody else) to have obtained the top job. As such, Heseltine seems to have rather enjoyed his time as Deputy Prime Minister, knowing that he had arrived at the pinnacle of his political career.

Aspirants to the highest office would be better advised to gain a reputation as Chancellor, or perhaps Foreign Secretary, before gambling on the top job.

MICHAEL HESELTINE MP SEC.STATE TO THE ENVIRONMENT 28 February 1992. **Credit:** Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

First Secretary of State

Additionally, there is also the position of First Secretary of State, which functions as a sort of de facto Deputy Prime Minister. This was created by Harold Macmillan in 1962, because ‘Rab’ Butler was uncomfortable with the informality of the Deputy Prime Minister title.

Harold Wilson appointed George Brown, Michael Stewart, and Barbara Castle to this position during the 1960s, and it then fell into abeyance until 1995, when it became Heseltine’s. The First Secretary does automatically carry a salary, and therefore has slightly more flexibility than that of Deputy Prime Minister, because it is a legal entity in its own right and the PM can appoint somebody First Secretary without having to combine it with another role.

Seeking to strengthen his government in 2008, Gordon Brown asked Labour grandee Peter Mandelson to return to Cabinet. He initially wanted to make Mandelson Deputy Prime Minister, but because Mandelson was a peer, not an MP, Brown was persuaded to make him First Secretary of State instead.

Later, during the Coalition government, Clegg was Deputy Prime Minister, but the Conservative William Hague filled the position of First Secretary of State. Notably, in 2020, when Boris Johnson was ill with Covid, he deputised his roles to the First Secretary of State, Dominic Raab.

During Theresa May’s government, Damian Green was First Secretary of State, but gave all the impressions of being Deputy Prime Minister in all but name – taking PMQs in her absence, managing Cabinet Committees, and fixing a deal with the DUP after the 2017 election that kept May in power.

Conclusion

“I do not propose to be buried until I am really dead”, so said American politician Daniel Webster when he was asked to run as Vice President alongside Zachary Taylor in 1848. In America, the Vice Presidency is a constitutionally defined part of the political system, and one that has had a wide variety of roles, as well as a high possibility of assuming the top job. But Webster’s line reflects a frustration that must come with being the ‘deputy’ – to be so close to power, but to have no clearly defined portfolio and few decision-making powers of one’s own.

As we have seen, the Deputy Prime Minister has often had this same sense of frustration. But the Deputy Prime Minister does not have even the comfort of any of the constitutionally defined roles of their American counterpart. The prospect of promotion is poor, and they can be dismissed by the Prime Minister like any other Cabinet minister. Even when they are influential, like Nick Clegg in the 2010-15 government, it has not often been a happy experience.

However, recent Prime Ministers have found the Deputy position to be useful. It can buttress their support at a difficult time, allow them to delegate pressures of the job (like the chairmanship of Cabinet Committees), and can be used as a perk for coalition partners or for purposes of internal party management.

Despite the less-than-perfect human experience, it would appear that the position of Deputy Prime Minister is here to stay.

Sources

The Cabinet Manual, 2011.

R. Attlee, As it Happened (London, 1954).

Beatrice Barr and Catherine Haddon, ‘The deputy prime minister and first secretary of state’, 4 April 2023, < https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/deputy-prime-minister-first-secretary-state >, accessed 21 November 2023.

Vernon Bogdanor, The Monarchy and the Constitution, (Oxford, 1995).

Rodney Brazier, Choosing a Prime Minister: The Transfer of Power in Britain, (London, 2020).

Nick Clegg, ‘Memorandum from the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform’, 19 July 2010, <https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/lords-committees/constitution/DPM/BackgroundPaper190710.pdf>, accessed 21 November 2023.

Nick Clegg, Politics: Between the Extremes, (London, 2016).

Oonagh Gay, ‘The Office of Deputy Prime Minister’, House of Commons Library, 2 July 2013, <https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn04023/>, accessed 21 November 2023.

Michael Heseltine, Life in the Jungle: My Autobiography, (London, 2000).

Geoffrey Howe, Conflict of Loyalty (London, 1994).

Colleen Shogan, ‘The Vice-Presidency: evolution of home and office’, The White House Historical Association, 25 August 2021, <https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-vice-presidency>, accessed 21 November 2023.

John Prescott, Docks to Downing Street (London, 2008).

Stephen Thornton and Jonathan Kirkup, ‘Was Damian Green really the Deputy Prime Minister?’, LSE, 22 December 2017, <https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/62576-2/>, accessed 21 November 2023.

Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (London, 1993).

Discover more

William Ewart Gladstone - Prime Ministers of the United kingdom

The Prime Ministers

Downing Street SW1 sign on building in London

PM Residences

In-depth Articles

The Deputy Prime Minister

Origins

Duties

Perks

Succession?

First Secretary of State

Conclusion

Sources

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