The Downing Street chief of staff is the most senior political appointee in the Office of the prime minister of the United Kingdom, acting as a senior aide to the prime minister. The chief of staff holds a highly powerful, non-ministerial position within His Majesty's Government.
The role of chief of staff initially had executive authority, vested by the prime minister, and at the time of its inception, was referred to as the most powerful unelected official in the UK and possibly ranked third in government, after the prime minister and the chancellor of the exchequer. Since 2007, the role does not have legal or executive authority, although the post holder remains, by definition, the senior adviser to the prime minister, and controls access to the prime minister and their staff.
From 1997 to 2019, and from November 2020, the title of chief of staff has been held by the most senior special adviser at Downing Street. Steve Barclay, the Member of Parliament for North East Cambridgeshire, served as chief of staff from February 2022 to July 2022, following the resignation of Dan Rosenfield. He was the first MP to serve in the role, and also retained his position as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and as a Cabinet minister. On 24 July 2019, Dominic Cummings was appointed as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and was described as the de facto chief of staff from 24 July 2019 to 13 November 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson were the acting chiefs of staff, having replaced Morgan McSweeney, who was appointed to the position in October 2024 and resigned on 8 February 2026. Former government minister James Purnell was appointed to the role when Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.
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Description
The chief of staff is an appointed special adviser or a career civil servant who is personally and politically close to the prime minister. The responsibilities of the post have varied according to the wishes of the sitting prime minister. Since the chief of staff is at the centre of the Downing Street operation, he or she will always be influential and closely involved in government policy formulation and implementation, political strategy and communication, and generally advising the prime minister, in conjunction with their wider "ministerial adviser" colleagues.
History
The first official chief of staff in 10 Downing Street was David Wolfson, under Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1985. The position of Downing Street Chief of Staff was recreated by Tony Blair upon his becoming prime minister in 1997 and Jonathan Powell held the post for ten years.
In 1997 Tony Blair gave his chief of staff, a special adviser, 'unprecedented powers' to issue orders to civil servants. Previously the Cabinet secretary had been the most senior non-ministerial figure in the British Government, and along with the principal private secretary to the prime minister had supported the prime minister in the running of 10 Downing Street. Following the creation of the role, the chief of staff supplanted the principal private secretary in running Downing Street operations and effectively replaced the power of the Cabinet secretary in terms of co-ordinating government policy.
Although the Cabinet secretary continued to be a highly important role, through remaining responsible for making sure that the civil service was organised effectively and was capable of delivering the Government's objectives, the chief of staff replaced the Cabinet Secretary as the "right-hand man" for the prime minister. "Powell had been at the epicentre of power. As Tony Blair's chief of staff, he was the ultimate fixer, the prime minister's first line of defence against events, baby-catcher in chief. When things went wrong, people called Powell."
When Powell stood down as chief of staff at the end of the Blair premiership in June 2007, the incoming prime minister, Gordon Brown, temporarily appointed civil servant Tom Scholar as both Downing Street chief of staff and principal private secretary to the prime minister. This was changed upon Scholar's scheduled departure in January 2008, when the title chief of staff was divided amongst two posts in an attempt to split the political policy communication role from the management of civil servants within Number 10. As such, senior civil servant Jeremy Heywood replaced Scholar as principal private secretary to the prime minister, a position he had held under Tony Blair several years earlier, with the role of chief of strategy and principal adviser to the prime minister (effectively chief of staff) being given to political adviser Stephen Carter.
After less than a year in the post Carter resigned, becoming a minister and receiving a peerage amid speculation that his 'chief of strategy' role had insufficient authority to direct cross-government operations; the position of chief of staff remained vacant for the remainder of the Brown Premiership. Upon David Cameron becoming prime minister in May 2010, Conservative adviser Edward Llewellyn was appointed as Downing Street chief of staff. Cameron also created the role of Downing Street deputy chief of staff, with responsibility for supporting the chief of staff, which was given to Catherine Fall.