Barely 24 hours after Labour’s victory at the polls, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s top team of MPs began to line the path to No. 10 Downing Street, hoping to have their shadow portfolios translated into long-awaited ministerial roles. 

First among the parade of MPs was Angela Rayner, who was appointed Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government and Deputy Prime Minister. 

While her brief at the newly renamed Ministry of Housing certainly comes with formidable influence, it is the penultimate Cabinet role of Deputy Prime Minister that sends the strongest signal of Rayner’s seniority in the ministerial ranking. But what does being Deputy Prime Minister actually entail? Statutorily, absolutely nothing. 

The role of Deputy Prime Minister is not codified in legislation, and its use in successive governments has been inconsistent since Clement Attlee was first styled with the title in 1942. 

The title faced opposition from ardent constitutionalists since its inception—chief among them the monarch. During Churchill’s war ministry, leader of the Labour Party Clement Attlee was styled Deputy Prime Minister in recognition of his party’s status as the second largest party in the cross-party unity government. But George VI was notoriously reluctant to recognize the title, as he viewed the title as an encroachment on the monarch’s right to select a Prime Minister’s successor (Thornton, 2024). This view was shared by his successor Elizabeth II, who refused to formally appoint any individual as DPM (Brazier, 2020). As such, the role of Deputy Prime Minister is merely a title and not an official appointment. 

Reflecting the enduring consensus against officially recognizing the role, it was excluded from the Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975, preventing the role from carrying a ministerial salary and requiring a concurrent appointment for the holder to receive ministerial compensation. 

The motivation for appointing a Deputy Prime Minister varies based on the political priorities of the Prime Minister, and the role’s authority is often measured by the influence of the holder, leading to a position which is rather malleable and lacking in formal authority. For Rayner, this means that constitutionally, she is little more than the Secretary of State for Housing—despite being designated as the second most senior minister of the crown. 

One solution to this constitutional conundrum would be to grant Angela Rayner the title First Secretary of State.

While neither Deputy Prime Minister nor First Secretary of State enjoys automatic right of ascension to the role of Prime Minister, the First Secretary of State enjoys a statutory footing that the DPM does not. Created in 1962 for R.A. Butler, the First Secretary of State carries a seal of office, and was incorporated as a corporation sole in 2002 under the statutory instrument The Transfer of Functions (Transport, Local Government and the Regions) Order 2002. The First Secretary is also eligible to receive a salary under the 1975 Act, independent from another ministerial appointment.

These incremental attempts at codification have resulted in the post of First Secretary carrying some statutory authority, or at least more than the role of Deputy Prime Minister. 

The prominence of the First Secretary was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic when then-First Secretary Dominic Raab was designated to deputize for Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his hospitalization with the virus. Raab concurrently held the role of Foreign Secretary, but it was his appointment as First Secretary from which his authority to deputize for the Prime Minister was drawn. 

Historical precedent provides two examples of a Deputy Prime Minister simultaneously occupying the office of First Secretary of State. Michael Heseltine held both roles in the second Major ministry, while John Prescott carried both titles in Blair’s second and third ministries. 

While Prescott’s commanding presence greatly increased the interpersonal authority of the Deputy Prime Minister, his legal authority was derived from his official ministerial appointments—first as Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and Regions and subsequently as First Secretary of State. While some scholars argue Prescott was only made First Secretary as compensation for the breakup of his super-department (the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions) in 2001, he continued to wield wide-ranging influence both through his ministerial positions, and his elected role as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party—a post currently occupied by Rayner. 

Rayner familiarized herself with the role of First Secretary while shadowing Dominic Raab. Even when Raab ceased to use the title upon his appointment as Deputy Prime Minister, Rayner maintained the Shadow FSS moniker until 2023 when she was named Shadow Deputy Prime Minister—aligning her shadow roles to reflect the Government’s discontinuation of the FSS appointment. 

Despite the benefits, the role of First Secretary of State itself remains ambiguous. Leading scholars on deputies to the British premier Stephen Thornton and Jonathan Kirkup argue that too often, the First Secretary’s precedence relies on the personality occupying the role—similar to the Deputy Prime Minister. There have also been successive First Secretaries that were not recognized as the Prime Minister’s deputy while holding the role. For instance, Barbara Castle served as First Secretary from 1968–1970 under Labour PM Harold Wilson, but Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart was widely acknowledged as Wilson’s deputy and came first in the cabinet order of precedence (Thornton and Kirkup, 2021).

Above all, the debate concerning the deputy premiership only further highlights the desire for meaningful constitutional clarity. Though with the Labour government beginning to tackle a burgeoning in-tray, constitutional tinkering feels like a minor priority.

In the meantime, appointing Angela Rayner First Secretary of State may help decrease ambiguity about her ability to deputize where necessary—and squash rumors that she has been ‘frozen out’ of Starmer’s top team. When held independently the Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary may struggle to define their role in highly volatile political environments, but when held concurrently, holders have enjoyed enhanced influence.

Though both roles suffer from a lack of clarity, their combined use may help formalize both the personal and statutory authority of the holder as the second most senior Cabinet minister—realigning the role with precedent set under the New Labour years, which have already served as one of Keir Starmer’s greatest inspirations. 

Robert Swetlic, M.A. is an early career researcher and incoming PhD student at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. His research interests include political communications and British politics. 

A special thank you to Dr. Stephen Thornton for lending his expertise during the writing of this post. 

(Suggested citation: R. Swetlic, ‘For Constitutional Clarity, Should Angela Rayner be Named First Secretary of State?’, U.K. Const. L. Blog (18th July 2024) (available at https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/))