Secretary of State for Transport

United Kingdom Secretary of State for Transport
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Louise Haigh since 5 July 2024
Department for Transport
Style	Transport Secretary (informal) The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth)
Type	Minister of the Crown
Status	Secretary of State
Member of	Cabinet Privy Council
Reports to	The Prime Minister
Seat	Westminster
Nominator	The Prime Minister
Appointer	The Monarch (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's Pleasure
Formation	19 May 1919: (as Minister of Transport) 29 May 2002: (as Secretary of State for Transport)
First holder	Eric Campbell Geddes (as Minister of Transport)
Salary	£159,038 per annum (2022)[1] (including £86,584 MP salary)[2]
Website	www.dft.gov.uk

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v t e

The secretary of state for transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport.^[3] The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

The office holder works alongside the other transport ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow secretary of state for transport, and the secretary of state is also scrutinised by the Transport Select Committee.^[4]

The current secretary of state for transport is Louise Haigh, who was appointed under Keir Starmer following Labour's victory in the 2024 United Kingdom general election.

The Ministry of Transport absorbed the Ministry of Shipping and was renamed the Ministry of War Transport in 1941, but resumed its previous name at the end of the war.^[5]

The Ministry of Civil Aviation was created by Winston Churchill in 1944 to look at peaceful ways of using aircraft and to find something for the aircraft factories to do after the war.^[6] The new Conservative government in 1951 appointed the same minister to both Transport and Civil Aviation, finally amalgamating the ministries on 1 October 1953.^[7]

The Ministry was renamed back to the Ministry of Transport on 14 October 1959, when a separate Ministry of Aviation was formed.

Transport responsibilities were subsumed by the Department for the Environment, headed by the secretary of state for the environment from 15 October 1970 to 10 September 1976.

The Department for Transport was recreated as a separate department by James Callaghan in 1976.^[8]

The super-department Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions was created in 1997 for Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

In 2001, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions was widely considered unwieldy and so was broken up,^[9] with the Transport functions now combined with Local Government and the Regions in the DTLR (Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions).

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative   Labour   National Labour   Liberal   National Liberal

Minister			Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
		Eric Campbell Geddes	19 May 1919	7 November 1921	Conservative		David Lloyd George (Coalition)
		William Peel, Viscount Peel	7 November 1921	12 April 1922	Conservative
		David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford	12 April 1922	31 October 1922	Conservative
		John Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven	31 October 1922	22 January 1924	Conservative		Bonar Law
							Stanley Baldwin
		Harry Gosling	24 January 1924	3 November 1924	Labour		Ramsay MacDonald
		Wilfrid Ashley	11 November 1924	4 June 1929	Conservative		Stanley Baldwin
		Herbert Morrison	7 June 1929	24 August 1931	Labour		Ramsay MacDonald
		John Pybus	3 September 1931	22 February 1933	Liberal		Ramsay MacDonald (1st & 2nd National min.)
		Hon. Oliver Stanley	22 February 1933	29 June 1934	Conservative
		Leslie Hore-Belisha	29 June 1934	28 May 1937	National Liberal
							Stanley Baldwin (3rd National min.)
		Leslie Burgin	28 May 1937	21 April 1939	National Liberal		Neville Chamberlain (4th National min.)
		Euan Wallace	21 April 1939	14 May 1940	Conservative		Neville Chamberlain (War Coalition)
		John Reith	14 May 1940	3 October 1940	National Independent		Winston Churchill (War Coalition)
		John Moore-Brabazon	3 October 1940	1 May 1941	Conservative

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative   Labour   National Liberal

Minister of Transport			Minister of Civil Aviation	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
		Frederick Leathers, 1st Viscount Leathers (Min. of War Transport)	—	1 May 1941	26 July 1945	Conservative		Winston Churchill (War Coalition)
			Philip Cunliffe-Lister, Viscount Swinton	8 October 1944	26 July 1945	Conservative
		Alfred Barnes	Reginald Fletcher, 1st Baron Winster	3–4 August 1945	4 October 1946	Labour		Clement Attlee
			Harry Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan	4 October 1946	31 May 1948	Labour
			Francis Pakenham, Lord Pakenham	31 May 1948	1 June 1951	Labour
			David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore	1 June 1951	26 October 1951	Labour
		Hon. John Maclay		31 October 1951	7 May 1952	National Liberal		Winston Churchill
		Alan Lennox-Boyd		7 May 1952	1 October 1953	Conservative

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative

Minister			Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
		Alan Lennox-Boyd	1 October 1953	28 July 1954	Conservative		Winston Churchill
		John Boyd-Carpenter	28 July 1954	20 December 1955	Conservative
		Harold Watkinson	20 December 1955	14 October 1959	Conservative		Anthony Eden
							Harold Macmillan

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative   Labour

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative   Labour

The junior ministers responsible for transport within the Department for the Environment:

• John Peyton^[11] (Conservative, 15 October 1970 – 7 March 1974)

• Fred Mulley^[10] (Labour, 7 March 1974 – 12 June 1975)
• John Gilbert^[12] (Labour, 12 June 1975 – 10 September 1976)

Colour key (for political parties):
  Labour

Secretary of State			Term of office		Length of Term	Political party	Prime Minister
		Bill Rodgers[13]	10 September 1976	4 May 1979	2 years, 7 months	Labour		James Callaghan

Not an official member of the cabinet.

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative

Minister			Term of office		Length of Term	Political party	Prime Minister
		Norman Fowler[14]	11 May 1979	5 January 1981	1 year, 7 months	Conservative		Margaret Thatcher

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative

Secretary of State			Term of office		Length of Term	Political party	Prime Minister
		Norman Fowler[14]	5 January 1981	14 September 1981	8 months	Conservative		Margaret Thatcher
		David Howell[15]	14 September 1981	11 June 1983	1 year, 8 months	Conservative
		Tom King[16]	11 June 1983	16 October 1983	4 months	Conservative
		Hon. Nicholas Ridley	16 October 1983	21 May 1986	2 years, 7 months	Conservative
		John Moore[17]	21 May 1986	13 June 1987	1 year	Conservative
		Paul Channon	13 June 1987	24 July 1989	2 years, 1 month	Conservative
		Cecil Parkinson[18]	24 July 1989	28 November 1990	1 year, 4 months	Conservative
		Malcolm Rifkind[19]	28 November 1990	10 April 1992	2 years, 8 months	Conservative		John Major
		John MacGregor[20]	11 April 1992	20 July 1994	2 years, 3 months	Conservative
		Brian Mawhinney[21]	20 July 1994	5 July 1995	11 months	Conservative
		Sir George Young, 6th Baronet[22]	5 July 1995	2 May 1997	1 year, 9 months	Conservative

Colour key (for political parties):
  Labour

Secretary of State			Term of office		Length of Term	Political party	Prime Minister
	John Prescott[23] MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle	MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle	2 May 1997	7 June 2001	4 years, 1 month	Labour		Tony Blair

Colour key (for political parties):
  Labour

After Byers' resignation, such a division was made, with the portfolios of Local Government and the Regions transferred to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

During the lifetime of DTLGR, John Spellar served as Minister of State for Transport with a right to attend Cabinet.

• John Spellar^[25] (8 June 2001 – 29 May 2002)

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative   Labour

Secretary of State			Term of office		Length of Term	Political party	Prime Minister
		Alistair Darling[26] MP for Edinburgh South West	29 May 2002	5 May 2006	3 years, 11 months	Labour		Tony Blair
		Douglas Alexander[27] MP for Paisley and South Renfrewshire	5 May 2006	28 June 2007	1 year, 1 month	Labour
		Ruth Kelly[28] MP for Bolton West	28 June 2007	5 October 2008	1 year, 3 months	Labour		Gordon Brown
		Geoff Hoon[29] MP for Ashfield	5 October 2008	5 June 2009	8 months	Labour
		Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis[30]	6 June 2009	6 May 2010	11 months	Labour
		Philip Hammond[31][32] MP for Runnymede and Weybridge	12 May 2010	14 October 2011	1 year, 5 months	Conservative		David Cameron (Coalition)
		Justine Greening[33] MP for Putney	14 October 2011	6 September 2012	10 months	Conservative
		Patrick McLoughlin[34] MP for Derbyshire Dales	6 September 2012	14 July 2016	3 years, 10 months	Conservative
								David Cameron (II)
		Chris Grayling[35] MP for Epsom and Ewell	14 July 2016	24 July 2019	3 years, 10 days	Conservative		Theresa May
		Grant Shapps[36] MP for Welwyn Hatfield	24 July 2019	6 September 2022	3 years, 1 month	Conservative		Boris Johnson
		Anne-Marie Trevelyan[37] MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed	6 September 2022	25 October 2022	7 weeks	Conservative		Liz Truss
		Mark Harper[38] MP for Forest of Dean	25 October 2022	5 July 2024	1 year, 8 months	Conservative		Rishi Sunak
		Louise Haigh[39] MP for Sheffield Heeley	5 July 2024	Incumbent	122 days	Labour		Keir Starmer

• Ministry of Civil Aviation Aerodrome Fire Service

• Track record: Transport secretaries