Minister for the Union

United Kingdom
Minister for the Union
Incumbent
Rishi Sunak
since 25 October 2022
SeatWestminster, London
AppointerMonarch
Term lengthAt His Majesty's pleasure
Inaugural holderBoris Johnson
Formation26 July 2019
DeputyMinister for Intergovernmental Relations

In the United Kingdom, Minister for the Union is a position created by the then prime minister Boris Johnson during his first ministry, to be held concurrently with the duties of prime minister. Johnson proposed the position during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership campaign. He was the first prime minister to adopt the title, and the post was retained by Johnson in his second ministry, and under the premierships of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

On 4 September 2019, the Government announced £10 million in funding to support the Prime Minister's work as Minister for the Union.

Responsibilities

Since September 2020, the responsibilities of the position have been: "As Minister for the Union, the Prime Minister works to ensure that all of government is acting on behalf of the entire United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales." Before that point, the government website did not show any responsibilities associated with the position.

List of ministers

# Portrait Name Took office Left office Term length Party Cabinet Ref
1 Boris Johnson 26 July 2019 (2019-07-26) 6 September 2022 (2022-09-06) 3 years and 43 days Conservative Johnson I
Johnson II
2 Liz Truss 6 September 2022 (2022-09-06) 25 October 2022 (2022-10-25) 50 days Conservative Truss
3 Rishi Sunak 25 October 2022 (2022-10-25) Incumbent 1 year and 134 days Conservative Sunak

Reception

A spokesperson for Johnson stated that the office was intended to emphasise his commitment to strengthening the bond between the countries of the United Kingdom. In July 2019, the title was described as a "cynical rebranding" by Kirsty Blackman, deputy leader of the Scottish National Party in the House of Commons from 2017 to 2020, who advocates Scottish independence. During the COVID-19 pandemic in July 2020, Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales and leader of Welsh Labour, drew attention to Johnson's lack of contact with the Welsh Government, saying: "If you are minister for the union, speaking to the component parts of the union seems to me a sensible way of discharging those responsibilities."

Related proposals

Robert Hazell has suggested merging the offices of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales into one Secretary of State for the Union, in a department into which Rodney Brazier has suggested adding a Minister of State for England with responsibility for English local government.


This page was last updated at 2024-03-06 17:06 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari