As the role of prime minister has
evolved over time, so has the role of Principal Private Secretary.
Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle appointed a private secretary during his second term of office as
First Lord of the Treasury (1757–62), and his 18th-century successors for the most part did likewise.
Ronald Waterhouse and
Patrick Gower, however, who were appointed to the office by the
Conservative Bonar Law in 1922, remained in post not only under his Conservative successor
Stanley Baldwin but also under the first
Labour prime minister
Ramsay MacDonald. Since then the Principal Private Secretary has been considered a member of the permanent Civil Service, rather than a political or personal appointee, and as such may remain in office in spite of any change of administration. For many years, although there was a hierarchy of officials within the private office, it was not generally made public (instead the 'private secretaries' were simply listed in alphabetical order); but this changed in 1929 when Robert Vansittart was listed as 'principal' private secretary for the first time in the
Imperial Calendar.
Recent history During
Tony Blair's administration, the prime minister (as
Minister for the Civil Service) modified the law under which the Civil Service operated (through an
Order in Council) which gave power to the newly created role of
Downing Street Chief of Staff (a politically appointed
special adviser) to give instructions to civil servants and outranked the principal private secretary in the Downing Street power structure. When
Gordon Brown entered 10 Downing Street, he reversed the change to the Civil Service law. When
David Cameron became prime minister, he promoted his then principal private secretary to a new post of "
Downing Street Permanent Secretary"; a position which took over as the top civil servant in the Prime Minister's Office and for the first time the head of the office held the highest rank in the UK's civil service. == List of principal private secretaries to the prime minister (from 1757, incomplete) ==