Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, also known as the foreign secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The role is seen as one of the most senior ministers in the UK Government and is a Great Office of State. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and National Security Council, and reports directly to the prime minister.

United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent David Lammy since 5 July 2024
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Style	Foreign Secretary (informal) The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth) His Excellency (diplomatic)
Type	Minister of the Crown
Status	Secretary of State Great Office of State
Member of	Cabinet Privy Council National Security Council
Reports to	The Prime Minister
Residence	No. 1 Carlton Gardens (Official) Chevening (Country House)
Seat	King Charles Street
Nominator	The Prime Minister
Appointer	The Monarch (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's pleasure
Formation	27 March 1782 (as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) 2 September 2020 (as Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs)
First holder	Charles James Fox (as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs)
Salary	£106,363 per annum (2022)
Website	Foreign Secretary

The officeholder works alongside the other Foreign Office ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the Shadow Foreign Secretary. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee also evaluates the secretary of state's performance.

The current foreign secretary is David Lammy. He was appointed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on 5 July 2024.

Responsibilities

In contrast to what is generally known as a foreign minister in many other countries, the Foreign Secretary's remit includes:

• British relations with foreign countries and governments
• Promotion of British interests abroad
• Matters pertaining to the Commonwealth of Nations and the Overseas Territories
• Oversight for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

Residence

The official residence of the foreign secretary is 1 Carlton Gardens, in London. The foreign secretary also has the use of Chevening House, a country house in Kent, South East England, and works from the Foreign Office in Whitehall.

History

History of English and British government departments with responsibility for foreign affairs and those with responsibility for the colonies, dominions and the Commonwealth

Northern Department 1660–1782 Secretaries —	Southern Department 1660–1768 Secretaries —		—
	Southern Department 1768–1782 Secretaries — 1782: diplomatic responsibilities transferred to new Foreign Office	Colonial Office 1768–1782 Secretaries — Undersecretaries
Foreign Office 1782–1968 Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries	Home Office 1782–1794 Secretaries — Undersecretaries
	War Office 1794–1801 Secretaries — Undersecretaries
	War and Colonial Office 1801–1854 Secretaries — Undersecretaries
	Colonial Office 1854–1925 Secretaries — Undersecretaries		India Office 1858–1937 Secretaries — Undersecretaries
	Colonial Office 1925–1966 Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries	Dominions Office 1925–1947 Secretaries — Undersecretaries
			India Office and Burma Office 1937–1947 Secretaries — Undersecretaries
		Commonwealth Relations Office 1947–1966 Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries
	Commonwealth Office 1966–1968 Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1968–2020 Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Since 2020 Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries

The title of secretary of state in the government of England dates back to the early 17th century. The position of secretary of state for foreign affairs was created in the British governmental reorganisation of 1782, in which the Northern Department and Southern Department became the Foreign Office and Home Office respectively. The India Office was closed down in 1947. It had been a constituent predecessor department of the Foreign Office, like the Colonial Office and the Dominions Office.

Eventually, the position of secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs came into existence in 1968 with the merger of the functions of secretary of state for foreign affairs and the secretary of state for Commonwealth affairs into a single department of state. Margaret Beckett, appointed in 2006 by Tony Blair, was the first woman to hold the post.

The post of Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs was created in 2020 when position holder Dominic Raab absorbed the responsibilities of the secretary of state for international development.

List of foreign secretaries

Secretaries of state for foreign affairs (1782–1968)

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Party	Ministry	Monarch (Reign)
		Charles James Fox MP for Westminster	27 March 1782	5 July 1782	Whig	Rockingham II	George III (1760–1820)
		Thomas Robinson 2nd Baron Grantham	13 July 1782	2 April 1783	Whig	Shelburne (Whig–Tory)
		Charles James Fox MP for Westminster	2 April 1783	19 December 1783	Whig	Fox–North
		George Nugent-Temple-Grenville 3rd Earl Temple	19 December 1783	23 December 1783	Tory	Pitt I
		His Grace Francis Osborne 5th Duke of Leeds	23 December 1783	May 1791	Tory
		William Grenville 1st Baron Grenville	8 June 1791	20 February 1801	Tory
​		Robert Jenkinson 2nd Earl of Liverpool MP for Rye	20 February 1801	14 May 1804	Tory
						Addington
		Dudley Ryder 2nd Baron Harrowby	14 May 1804	11 January 1805	Tory	Pitt II
		Henry Phipps 3rd Baron Mulgrave	11 January 1805	7 February 1806	Tory
		Charles James Fox MP for Westminster	7 February 1806	13 September 1806^†	Whig	All the Talents (Whig–Tory)
		Charles Grey Viscount Howick MP for Northumberland	24 September 1806	25 March 1807	Whig
		George Canning MP for Newtown (Isle of Wight) → Hastings	25 March 1807	11 October 1809	Tory	Portland II
		Henry Bathurst 3rd Earl Bathurst	11 October 1809	6 December 1809	Tory	Perceval
		Richard Wellesley 1st Marquess Wellesley	6 December 1809	4 March 1812	Independent
		Robert Stewart 2nd Marquess of Londonderry	4 March 1812	12 August 1822^†	Tory	Liverpool
							George IV
		George Canning MP for 3 constituencies respectively	16 September 1822	30 April 1827	Tory
		John Ward 1st Earl of Dudley	30 April 1827	2 June 1828	Tory	Canning (Canningite–Whig)
						Goderich
​						Wellington–Peel
		George Hamilton-Gordon 4th Earl of Aberdeen	2 June 1828	22 November 1830	Tory
							William IV
		Henry John Temple 3rd Viscount Palmerston MP for 3 constituencies respectively	22 November 1830	14 November 1834	Whig	Grey
						Melbourne I
		Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington	14 November 1834	18 April 1835	Tory	Wellington Caretaker
					Conservative	Peel I
		Henry John Temple 3rd Viscount Palmerston MP for Tiverton	18 April 1835	2 September 1841	Whig	Melbourne II
							Victoria (1837–1901)
		George Hamilton-Gordon 4th Earl of Aberdeen	2 September 1841	6 July 1846	Conservative	Peel II
		Henry John Temple 3rd Viscount Palmerston MP for Tiverton	6 July 1846	26 December 1851	Whig	Russell I
		Granville Leveson-Gower 2nd Earl Granville	26 December 1851	27 February 1852	Whig
		James Howard Harris 3rd Earl of Malmesbury	27 February 1852	28 December 1852	Conservative	Who? Who?
		Lord John Russell MP for the City of London	28 December 1852	21 February 1853	Whig	Aberdeen (Peelite–Whig)
​		George Villiers 4th Earl of Clarendon	21 February 1853	26 February 1858	Whig
						Palmerston I
		James Howard Harris 3rd Earl of Malmesbury	26 February 1858	18 June 1859	Conservative	Derby–Disraeli II
		John Russell 1st Earl Russell	18 June 1859	3 November 1865	Liberal	Palmerston II
		George Villiers 4th Earl of Clarendon	3 November 1865	6 July 1866	Liberal	Russell II
		Edward Stanley Lord Stanley MP for King's Lynn	6 July 1866	9 December 1868	Conservative	Derby–Disraeli III
		George Villiers 4th Earl of Clarendon	9 December 1868	6 July 1870	Liberal	Gladstone I
		Granville Leveson-Gower 2nd Earl Granville	6 July 1870	21 February 1874	Liberal
		Edward Stanley 15th Earl of Derby	21 February 1874	2 April 1878	Conservative	Disraeli II
		Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury	2 April 1878	28 April 1880	Conservative
		Granville Leveson-Gower 2nd Earl Granville	28 April 1880	24 June 1885	Liberal	Gladstone II
		Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury	24 June 1885	6 February 1886	Conservative	Salisbury I
		Archibald Primrose 5th Earl of Rosebery	6 February 1886	3 August 1886	Liberal	Gladstone III
		Stafford Northcote 1st Earl of Iddesleigh	3 August 1886	12 January 1887^†	Conservative	Salisbury II
		Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury	14 January 1887	11 August 1892	Conservative
		Archibald Primrose 5th Earl of Rosebery	18 August 1892	11 March 1894	Liberal	Gladstone IV
		John Wodehouse 1st Earl of Kimberley	11 March 1894	21 June 1895	Liberal	Rosebery
		Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury	29 June 1895	12 November 1900	Conservative	Salisbury (III & IV) (Con.–Lib.U.)
​		Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice 5th Marquess of Lansdowne	12 November 1900	4 December 1905	Liberal Unionist
​							Edward VII (1901–1910)
						Balfour
		Edward Grey MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed	10 December 1905	10 December 1916	Liberal	Campbell-Bannerman
​						Asquith (I–III)
​							George V
						Asquith Coalition (Lib.–Con.–et al.)
		Arthur Balfour MP for the City of London	10 December 1916	23 October 1919	Conservative	Lloyd George (I & II)
​		George Curzon 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston	23 October 1919	22 January 1924	Conservative
						Law
						Baldwin I
		Ramsay MacDonald MP for Aberavon	22 January 1924	3 November 1924	Labour	MacDonald I
		Austen Chamberlain MP for Birmingham West	6 November 1924	4 June 1929	Conservative	Baldwin II
		Arthur Henderson MP for Burnley	7 June 1929	24 August 1931	Labour	MacDonald II
		Rufus Isaacs 1st Marquess of Reading	25 August 1931	5 November 1931	Liberal	National I (N.Lab.–Con.–et al.)
		John Simon MP for Spen Valley	5 November 1931	7 June 1935	Liberal National	National II
		Samuel Hoare MP for Chelsea	7 June 1935	18 December 1935	Conservative	National III (Con.–N.Lab.–et al.)
​		Anthony Eden MP for Warwick & Leamington	22 December 1935	20 February 1938	Conservative
							Edward VIII (1936)
​							George VI
​						National IV
​		Edward Wood 3rd Viscount Halifax	21 February 1938	22 December 1940	Conservative
						Chamberlain War
						Churchill War (All parties)
		Anthony Eden MP for Warwick & Leamington	22 December 1940	26 July 1945	Conservative
						Churchill Caretaker (Con.–Lib.N.)
		Ernest Bevin MP for Wandsworth Central → Woolwich East	27 July 1945	9 March 1951	Labour	Attlee (I & II)
		Herbert Morrison MP for Lewisham South	9 March 1951	26 October 1951	Labour
		Anthony Eden MP for Warwick & Leamington	28 October 1951	7 April 1955	Conservative	Churchill III
							Elizabeth II
		Harold Macmillan MP for Bromley	7 April 1955	20 December 1955	Conservative	Eden
		Selwyn Lloyd MP for Wirral	20 December 1955	27 July 1960	Conservative
						Macmillan (I & II)
		Alec Douglas-Home 14th Earl of Home	27 July 1960	18 October 1963	Conservative
		Richard Austen Butler MP for Saffron Walden	20 October 1963	16 October 1964	Conservative	Douglas-Home
		Patrick Gordon Walker Neither an MP nor a Lord	16 October 1964	22 January 1965	Labour	Wilson (I & II)
		Michael Stewart MP for Fulham	22 January 1965	11 August 1966	Labour
		George Brown MP for Belper	11 August 1966	16 March 1968	Labour
		Michael Stewart MP for Fulham	16 March 1968	17 October 1968	Labour

^† Died in office.

1. The Prince of Wales served as prince regent from 5 February 1811.
2. Elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom in November 1803.
3. Elected to a new constituency in the 1807 general election.
4. Elected to a new constituency in the 1950 general election.
5. Walker was the MP for Smethwick and Labour's shadow Foreign Secretary, prior to the 1964 general election. He lost his seat in the election but was appointed to the post anyway. He resigned after fighting and losing a 1965 by-election in Leyton.

Secretaries of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs (1968–2020)

Post created through the merger of the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Portrait		Name (birth–death)	Term of office		Party	Ministry	Sovereign (Reign)
		Michael Stewart MP for Fulham (1906–1990)	17 October 1968	19 June 1970	Labour	Wilson (I & II)	Elizabeth II (1952–2022)
		Alec Douglas-Home MP for Kinross and Western Perthshire (1903–1995)	20 June 1970	4 March 1974	Conservative	Heath
		James Callaghan MP for Cardiff South East (1912–2005)	5 March 1974	5 April 1976	Labour	Wilson (III & IV)
		Anthony Crosland MP for Great Grimsby (1918–1977)	8 April 1976	19 February 1977^†	Labour	Callaghan
		David Owen MP for Plymouth Devonport (born 1938)	22 February 1977	4 May 1979	Labour
		Peter Carington 6th Baron Carrington (1919–2018)	4 May 1979	5 April 1982	Conservative	Thatcher I
		Francis Pym MP for Cambridgeshire (1922–2008)	6 April 1982	11 June 1983	Conservative
		Geoffrey Howe MP for East Surrey (1926–2015)	11 June 1983	24 July 1989	Conservative	Thatcher II
​						Thatcher III
		John Major MP for Huntingdon (born 1943)	24 July 1989	26 October 1989	Conservative
​		Douglas Hurd MP for Witney (born 1930)	26 October 1989	5 July 1995	Conservative
						Major I
​						Major II
		Malcolm Rifkind MP for Edinburgh Pentlands (born 1946)	5 July 1995	2 May 1997	Conservative
		Robin Cook MP for Livingston (1946–2005)	2 May 1997	8 June 2001	Labour	Blair I
		Jack Straw MP for Blackburn (born 1946)	8 June 2001	5 May 2006	Labour	Blair II
​						Blair III
		Margaret Beckett MP for Derby South (born 1943)	5 May 2006	27 June 2007	Labour
		David Miliband MP for South Shields (born 1965)	28 June 2007	11 May 2010	Labour	Brown
		William Hague MP for Richmond (Yorks) (born 1961)	12 May 2010	14 July 2014	Conservative	Cameron–Clegg (Con.–L.D.)
​		Philip Hammond MP for Runnymede and Weybridge (born 1955)	14 July 2014	13 July 2016	Conservative
						Cameron II
		Boris Johnson MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (born 1964) Tenure	13 July 2016	9 July 2018	Conservative	May I
​						May II
		Jeremy Hunt MP for South West Surrey (born 1966)	9 July 2018	24 July 2019	Conservative
		Dominic Raab MP for Esher and Walton (born 1974)	24 July 2019	2 September 2020	Conservative	Johnson I
​						Johnson II

Secretaries of state for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (2020–present)

Post created through the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.

Portrait		Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Party	Ministry	Sovereign (Reign)
		Dominic Raab MP for Esher and Walton (born 1974)	2 September 2020	15 September 2021	Conservative	Johnson II	Elizabeth II (1952–2022)
		Liz Truss MP for South West Norfolk (born 1975)	15 September 2021	6 September 2022	Conservative
		James Cleverly MP for Braintree (born 1969)	6 September 2022	13 November 2023	Conservative	Truss
							Charles III (2022–present)
						Sunak
		David Cameron Sits in the House of Lords (born 1966)	13 November 2023	5 July 2024	Conservative
		David Lammy MP for Tottenham (born 1972)	5 July 2024	Incumbent	Labour	Starmer

Timeline

See also

• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
• Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs
• Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
• Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
• Ministry of foreign affairs
• Great Offices of State

References

1. "Salaries of Members of His Majesty's Government – Financial Year 2022–23" (PDF). 15 December 2022.
2. "Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs". gov.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
3. "Afghanistan: The questions facing Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab". BBC News. 1 September 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will be grilled by the Foreign Affairs Committee over his handling of the UK's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
4. Archives, The National. "Senior Cabinet posts". www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
5. "Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
6. "Ministerial responsibility". GCHQ. 23 March 2016. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2017. Day-to-day ministerial responsibility for GCHQ lies with the Foreign Secretary.
7. "Written Answers to Questions: Foreign and Commonwealth Office: 1 Carlton Gardens". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 6 May 2009. col. 165W.
8. "Dominic Raab and Liz Truss agree to share 115-room mansion". BBC News. 13 October 2021.
9. Hughes, Laura (25 December 2021). "Britain's Foreign Office has badly lost its way, say critics". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
10. Sainty, J. C. (1973). "Introduction". Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 2 – Officials of the Secretaries of State 1660–1782. University of London. pp. 1–21 – via British History Online. At the Restoration [in 1660] the practice of appointing two Secretaries of State, which was well established before the Civil War, was resumed. Apart from the modifications which were made necessary by the occasional existence of a third secretaryship, the organisation of the secretariat underwent no fundamental change from that time until the reforms of 1782 which resulted in the emergence of the Home and Foreign departments. ... English domestic affairs remained the responsibility of both Secretaries throughout the period. In the field of foreign affairs there was a division into a Northern and a Southern Department, each of which was the responsibility of one Secretary. The distinction between the two departments emerged only gradually. It was not until after 1689 that their names passed into general currency. Nevertheless the division of foreign business itself can, in its broad outlines, be detected in the early years of the reign of Charles II.
11. "India Office". British Museum. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
12. "Margaret Beckett". European Leadership Network. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
13. "Merging success: Bringing together the FCO and DFID : Government Response to Committee's Second Report". UK Parliament. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
14. "Past Foreign Secretaries". gov.uk. Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
15. Including honorifics and constituencies for elected MPs.
16. Including honorifics and constituencies for elected MPs.
17. "Boris Johnson quits to add to pressure on May over Brexit". BBC News. 9 July 2018.
18. "Jeremy Hunt replaces Boris Johnson as foreign secretary". BBC News. 9 July 2018.
19. Andrew Sparrow (24 July 2019). "Raab appointed foreign secretary and first secretary of state". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2019.

Further reading

• Cecil, Algernon. British foreign secretaries, 1807–1916: studies in personality and policy (1927). pp. 89–130. online
• Goodman, Sam. The Imperial Premiership: The Role of the Modern Prime Minister in Foreign Policy Making, 1964–2015 (Oxford UP, 2016).
• Hughes, Michael. British Foreign Secretaries in an Uncertain World, 1919–1939. (Routledge, 2004).
• Johnson, Gaynor. "Introduction: The Foreign Office and British Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century", Contemporary British History, (2004) 18:3, 1–12, doi:10.1080/1361946042000259279
• Neilson, Keith, and Thomas G. Otte. The permanent under-secretary for foreign affairs, 1854–1946 (Routledge, 2008).
• Otte, Thomas G. The Foreign Office Mind: The Making of British Foreign Policy, 1865–1914 (Cambridge UP, 2011).

• Seldon, Anthony. The Impossible Office? The History of the British Prime Minister (2021) excerpt major scholarly history. Covers the relations with Prime Minister in Chapter 8.

• Steiner, Zara. The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898–1914 (1986).
• Temperley, Harold. "British Secret Diplomacy from Canning to Grey." Cambridge Historical Journal 6.1 (1938): 1–32.
• Theakston, Kevin, ed. British foreign secretaries since 1974 (Routledge, 2004).
• Wilson, Keith M., ed. British foreign secretaries and foreign policy: from Crimean War to First World War (1987).

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Foreign Secretaries of the United Kingdom.

• FCDO website