Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury

The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury is a junior ministerial post in His Majesty's Treasury, ranked below the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Paymaster General and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and alongside the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. It ranks at Parliamentary Secretary level and the holder does not attend Cabinet.

United Kingdom Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent James Murray since 9 July 2024
His Majesty's Treasury
Reports to	First Lord of the Treasury Chancellor of the Exchequer & Second Lord of the Treasury
Nominator	Prime Minister
Appointer	The King (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's pleasure
Inaugural holder	Phillip Oppenheim
Formation	23 July 1996
Website	Official website

The first Exchequer Secretary was Phillip Oppenheim,^[1] who held the post from 23 July 1996 to 2 May 1997, when he lost his seat in the general election that brought Tony Blair to power.

After a period of abeyance, the office was reinstated upon Gordon Brown's accession as Prime Minister in June 2007, when Angela Eagle was appointed Exchequer Secretary. The office again fell out of use in July 2016 when Theresa May became Prime Minister, before she reinstated it following the 2017 general election.

The position was held by Helen Whately, having been held by Kemi Badenoch from 2020 to 2021.^[2]

The minister is shadowed by the Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, who sits on the Official Opposition frontbench.

Responsibilities

HM Treasury

• Enterprise and productivity including small business taxation and support to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on economic reform
• Competition and better regulation
• Science, innovation and skills policy, including implementation of the 10-year science and innovation strategy and the R&D tax credit
• Regional economic policy
• Urban regeneration and social exclusion including housing, planning and planning gain supplement;
• Environmental issues including taxation of transport, international Climate Change issues including global carbon trading and EU ETS, and Energy Issues
• Taxation of oil
• Excise duties and gambling, including excise fraud and law enforcement
• Public-private partnerships including Private Finance Initiative, and Partnerships UK
• Ministerial responsibility for the Office for National Statistics, the Royal Mint and Departmental Minister for HM Treasury Group
• Support to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on public spending issues including long-term challenges in the run up to the Comprehensive Spending Review and selected Cabinet Committees
• Assist where necessary on European issues
• Working with the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on the Finance Bill

Responsibility for procurement policy and the former Office of Government Commerce was transferred to the Cabinet Office in 2011.

List of exchequer secretaries

Key

Conservative       Labour

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Party	Prime Minister		Chancellor	Ref.
		Phillip Oppenheim MP for Amber Valley	23 July 1996	2 May 1997	Conservative		Major	Clarke	[3]
Office not in use			1997–2007		N/A		Blair	Brown
		Angela Eagle MP for Wallasey	29 June 2007	9 June 2009	Labour		Brown	Darling	[4]
		Kitty Ussher MP for Burnley	9 June 2009	17 June 2009	Labour				[5]
		Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP for Portsmouth North	17 June 2009	11 May 2010	Labour				[6]
		David Gauke MP for South West Hertfordshire	13 May 2010	15 July 2014	Conservative		Cameron (Coalition)	Osborne	[7]
		Priti Patel MP for Witham	15 July 2014	11 May 2015	Conservative				[8]
		Damian Hinds MP for East Hampshire	12 May 2015	13 July 2016	Conservative		Cameron (II)		[9]
Office not in use			2016–2017		N/A		May (I)	Hammond
		Andrew Jones MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough	15 June 2017	8 January 2018	Conservative		May (II)		[10]
		Robert Jenrick MP for Newark	9 January 2018	24 July 2019	Conservative				[11]
		Simon Clarke MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland	27 July 2019	13 February 2020	Conservative		Johnson	Javid	[12]
		Kemi Badenoch MP for Saffron Walden	13 February 2020	16 September 2021	Conservative			Sunak	[2]
		Helen Whately MP for Faversham and Mid Kent	16 September 2021	8 July 2022	Conservative				[13]
		Alan Mak MP for Havant	8 July 2022	7 September 2022	Conservative			Zahawi	[14]
		Felicity Buchan MP for Kensington	8 September 2022	28 October 2022	Conservative		Truss	Kwarteng	[15]
								Hunt
		James Cartlidge MP for South Suffolk	28 October 2022	21 April 2023	Conservative		Sunak		[16]
		Gareth Davies MP for Grantham and Stamford	21 April 2023	4 July 2024	Conservative				[17]
		James Murray MP for Ealing North	9 July 2024	Incumbent	Labour		Starmer	Reeves	[18]