Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the second highest ranking minister of the Crown and a member of the British Cabinet. The title is not always in use and prime ministers have been known to appoint informal deputies without the title of deputy prime minister. The incumbent deputy prime minister is Oliver Dowden. The position of deputy prime minister carries no salary and therefore it is necessary to appoint the holder to another position which entitles them to draw a salary under the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975. The office is not always in use, and prime ministers may use other offices, such as First Secretary of State, to indicate the seniority. The holder of the position has no right to automatic succession. Historically there has been resistance by the monarch to appointing an individual as deputy prime minister as it might be considered to infringe upon their royal prerogative to choose a Prime Minister. However, Rodney Brazier has more recently written that there is a strong constitutional case for every Prime Minister to appoint a Deputy Prime Minister, to ensure an effective temporary transfer of power in most circumstances. Similarly, Vernon Bogdanor has said that that argument holds little weight in the modern context, since the monarch no longer has any real discretion, and that, even in the past, a person acting as deputy prime minister had no real advantage to being appointed Prime Minister by the monarch (though this might be different within political parties in relation to their respective leaderships). Like Brazier, he also says that there is a good constitutional case for recognising the office; for in the case of the death or incapacity of the incumbent prime minister. Brazier has written that there are three reasons why a deputy prime minister has been appointed: to set out the line of succession to the premiership preferred by the prime minister, to promote the efficient discharge of government business and (in the case of Labour governments) to accord recognition to the status of the deputy leader of the Labour party.