Minister of State for Trade Policy

United Kingdom
Minister of State for Trade Policy
United Kingdom; Minister of State for Trade Policy
	Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
	Incumbent; Greg Hands; since 13 November 2023
	Department for Business and Trade
Style	Minister
Nominator	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Appointer	The Monarch; on advice of the Prime Minister
Formation	3 September 1953
First holder	Derick Heathcoat-Amory
Website	www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-of-state--96

The Minister of State for Trade Policy is a mid-level role at the Department for Business and Trade in the Government of the United Kingdom. It is currently held by Greg Hands, who took the office on 13 November 2023. From 2016 to February 2023 the role was based in the Department for International Trade.

History[edit]

Although a Minister of State position, it was considered to be one of the most important jobs outside Cabinet rank as when Douglas Alexander became Minister of State for Trade in September 2004, he was given a special provision to attend the Cabinet meetings.

The subsequent role of Minister of State for Investment was created in 2021.

The minister formerly worked at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Department for International Trade.

List of ministers[edit]

Minister		Entered office	Left office	Political party
Minister of State for Trade[edit]
	Derick Heathcoat-Amory	3 September 1953	18 October 1954	Conservative	Winston Churchill
	Derek Walker-Smith	18 October 1954	6 April 1955	Conservative	Winston Churchill
	Derick Heathcoat-Amory	6 April 1955	16 January 1957	Conservative	Anthony Eden
	Derek Walker-Smith	16 January 1957	17 September 1957	Conservative	Harold Macmillan
	John Vaughan-Morgan	17 September 1957	22 October 1959	Conservative
	Frederick Erroll	22 October 1959	9 October 1961	Conservative
	Keith Joseph	9 October 1961	16 July 1962	Conservative
	Alan Green	16 July 1962	23 October 1963	Conservative
	The Lord Derwent	6 September 1962	23 October 1963	Conservative
	The Lord Drumalbyn	23 October 1963	16 October 1964	Conservative	Alec Douglas-Home
	Edward du Cann	23 October 1963	16 October 1964	Conservative	Alec Douglas-Home
	George Darling	20 October 1964	6 April 1968	Labour	Harold Wilson
	Edward Redhead	20 October 1964	11 October 1965	Labour
	Roy Mason	20 October 1964	7 January 1967	Labour
	The Lord Brown	11 October 1965	19 June 1970	Labour
	Joseph Mallalieu	7 January 1967	1 July 1968	Labour
	Edmund Dell	6 April 1968	13 October 1969	Labour
	William Rodgers	1 July 1968	13 October 1969	Labour
	Goronwy Roberts	13 October 1969	19 June 1970	Labour
	Frederick Corfield	24 June 1970	15 October 1970	Conservative	Edward Heath
	Michael Noble	15 October 1970	5 November 1972	Conservative
	Geoffrey Howe^[a]	5 November 1972	4 March 1974	Conservative
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade[edit]
	Eric Deakins	4 March 1974	5 April 1976	Labour	Harold Wilson
	Stanley Clinton-Davis	4 March 1974	4 May 1979	Labour	Harold Wilson
	Michael Meacher	5 April 1976	4 May 1979	Labour	James Callaghan
Minister of State for Trade[edit]
	Cecil Parkinson	7 May 1979	14 September 1981	Conservative	Margaret Thatcher
	Peter Rees	14 September 1981	9 June 1983	Conservative
	Paul Channon	9 June 1983	24 January 1986	Conservative
	Alan Clark	24 January 1986	25 July 1989	Conservative
	The Lord Trefgarne	25 July 1989	23 July 1990	Conservative
	Tim Sainsbury	23 July 1990	14 April 1992	Conservative	John Major
	Richard Needham	14 April 1992	6 July 1995	Conservative
	Anthony Nelson	6 July 1995	2 May 1997	Conservative
	The Lord Clinton-Davis	2 May 1997	28 July 1998	Labour	Tony Blair
	Brian Wilson	28 July 1998	28 July 1999	Labour
	Richard Caborn	28 July 1999	11 June 2001	Labour
	The Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean	11 June 2001	13 June 2003	Labour
	Mike O'Brien	13 June 2003	9 September 2004	Labour
	Douglas Alexander	9 September 2004	11 May 2005	Labour
	Ian Pearson	11 May 2005	8 May 2006	Labour
	Ian McCartney^[b]	8 May 2006	28 June 2007	Labour
	The Lord Jones of Birmingham	29 June 2007	3 October 2008	Independent^[c]	Gordon Brown
	Gareth Thomas^[d]	3 October 2008	5 June 2009	Labour	Gordon Brown
Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Business[edit]
	The Lord Davies of Abersoch	14 January 2009	11 May 2010	Labour	Gordon Brown
Minister of State for Business and Enterprise[edit]
	Mark Prisk^[e]	11 May 2010	11 January 2011	Conservative	David Cameron
Minister of State for Trade and Investment[edit]
	The Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint	11 January 2011	11 December 2013	Conservative	David Cameron
	The Lord Livingston of Parkhead	11 December 2013	11 May 2015	Conservative	David Cameron
	The Lord Maude of Horsham	11 May 2015	10 February 2016	Conservative	David Cameron
	The Lord Price^[f]	4 April 2016	3 September 2017	Conservative	Theresa May
Minister of State for Trade[edit]
	The Baroness Fairhead	28 September 2017	7 May 2019	Conservative	Theresa May
Minister of State for Trade Policy[edit]
	Greg Hands	15 July 2016	21 June 2018	Conservative	Theresa May
	George Hollingbery	21 June 2018	25 July 2019	Conservative	Theresa May
	Conor Burns	25 July 2019	4 May 2020	Conservative	Boris Johnson
	Greg Hands	13 February 2020	15 September 2021	Conservative
	Penny Mordaunt	16 September 2021	6 September 2022	Conservative
	Conor Burns	7 September 2022	7 October 2022	Conservative	Liz Truss
	Greg Hands	9 October 2022	7 February 2023	Conservative	Liz Truss
	Greg Hands	9 October 2022	7 February 2023	Conservative	Rishi Sunak
	Vacant	7 February 2023	13 November 2023
	Greg Hands	13 November 2023	Incumbent	Conservative

Minister of State for Investment[edit]

	Entered office	Left office	Political party
The Lord Grimstone of Boscobel	18 March 2020	7 July 2022	Conservative	Boris Johnson
The Lord Johnson of Lainston	2 October 2022	28 October 2022	Conservative	Liz Truss
The Lord Johnson of Lainston	24 November 2022	Incumbent	Conservative	Rishi Sunak

Notes[edit]

^ Attended Cabinet.
^ Attended Cabinet.
^ Jones sat on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, but never joined the party.
^ Thomas apparently continued as a Trade Minister after the appointment of Davies. BERR described him simply as Minister for Trade, rather than Minister for Trade and Investment, as he was prior to Davies' appointment.^[1]
^ He handled UK Trade & Investment until Green entered the government.
^ Joyce Anelay, Baroness Anelay of St John's was given Maude's responsibilities on an interim basis until Price took up the role in March 2016.^[2]

References[edit]

^ BERR - Ministerial Team Archived 2008-12-23 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Ministerial appointment: Mark Ian Price". Retrieved 10 February 2016.

External links[edit]

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[1] Attended Cabinet.

[2] Attended Cabinet.

[3] Jones sat on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, but never joined the party.

[5] Thomas apparently continued as a Trade Minister after the appointment of Davies. BERR described him simply as Minister for Trade, rather than Minister for Trade and Investment, as he was prior to Davies' appointment.^[1]

[6] He handled UK Trade & Investment until Green entered the government.

[8] Joyce Anelay, Baroness Anelay of St John's was given Maude's responsibilities on an interim basis until Price took up the role in March 2016.^[2]

[berr-4] BERR - Ministerial Team Archived 2008-12-23 at the Wayback Machine

[7] "Ministerial appointment: Mark Ian Price". Retrieved 10 February 2016.

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[b]

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History[edit]

List of ministers[edit]

Minister of State for Trade[edit]

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade[edit]

Minister of State for Trade[edit]

Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Business[edit]

Minister of State for Business and Enterprise[edit]

Minister of State for Trade and Investment[edit]

Minister of State for Trade[edit]

Minister of State for Trade Policy[edit]

Minister of State for Investment[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]