Ministerial role

Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs

Organisations: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Current role holder: The Rt Hon David Lammy MP

Responsibilities

The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for all Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office business, including:

  • overarching responsibility for the departmental portfolio and oversight of the ministerial team
  • Cabinet
  • foreign policy and National Security Council
  • strategy
  • intelligence policy
  • honours

Current role holder

The Rt Hon David Lammy MP

David Lammy was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs on 5 July 2024. David was first elected as Labour MP for Tottenham at the age of 27 in June 2000.

David studied law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Law School and Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales in 1994.

David was appointed the Shadow Foreign Secretary in November 2021. He was previously the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and the Shadow Lord Chancellor.

David served as a minister in the Labour government from 2001 to 2010 and was made a Privy Councillor in 2008. He was in several departments, including the Department of Health and the Department of Constitutional Affairs. He was Culture Minister at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Higher Education and Intellectual Property Minister at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

In 2016 to 2017, David led an independent review into treatment and outcomes of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people in the criminal justice system. He is the author of ‘Out of the ashes: Britain after the riots’ on the causes of the London 2011 riots, and ‘Tribes: how our need to belong can make or break society’ (2020).

David is on the Advisory Board for the European Council on Foreign Relations and is President of the British and Foreign School Society. He is also an Associate Tenant Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and a Professor in Practice at London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Follow the Foreign Secretary on social media: @DavidLammy on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

More about this person

Previous holders of this role

  1. The Rt Hon Lord Cameron

    2023 to 2024

  2. The Rt Hon James Cleverly MP

    2022 to 2023

  3. The Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss

    2021 to 2022

  4. The Rt Hon Dominic Raab

    2020 to 2021