X-Nico

7 unusual facts about Parliamentary Private Secretary


Conor Burns

He was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Hugo Swire, the Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office in 2010, before which he briefly sat on the Education select committee.

He was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland between 2010 and 2012, before resigning from the Government due to his opposition to the Lords Reform Bill.

David Borrow

In 2003 he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State at the Department for Transport Kim Howells, and remained so when his boss moved sideways to the Department for Education and Skills in 2004.

Gordon Oakes

Oakes served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary from 1966, and in the government of Harold Wilson as a junior minister and as a Minister of State under James Callaghan.

Ian Pearson

Pearson served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Paymaster-General Geoffrey Robinson from 1997 until Robinson was forced to resign in 1998.

Melissa Lee

On 20 December 2011 John Key announced that Lee and John Hayes would become Parliamentary Private Secretaries, a role not in use for several years.

Peter Thurnham

He became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Secretary of State for Employment Norman Fowler from 1987 to 1990, and was then PPS to both Eric Forth and Robert Jackson in 1991 to 1992, and finally to Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Howard (his contemporary at Peterhouse) from 1992 to 1993.


Charlotte Atkins

After the 2001 general election Atkins was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Chris Bryant

Bryant was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs Charlie Falconer.

Christopher Fraser

He was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Strathclyde, the Shadow Leader of the House of Lords.

Duncan Hames

He currently serves as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, a post he succeeded his wife Jo Swinson in.

Edgar Granville, Baron Granville of Eye

Becoming a Liberal National for the 1931, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to then Home Secretary, Sir Herbert Samuel, then to Sir John Simon, Foreign Secretary, in the National Governments of the 1930s.

Graeme Morrice

Since being elected to the House of Commons he had been the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, John Denham from 2010 to 2011.

Hartley Booth

He resigned from his position as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in February 1994 after revelations that he had had a "friendship" with a former young research assistant, Emily Barr, who went on to be a successful journalist and novelist.

Ian Cawsey

He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Lord Williams of Mostyn from 2001 to 2002.

Keith Hampson

Hampson was PPS to Michael Heseltine, then Defence Secretary, when he was involved in a May 1984 incident in a gay theatre club in Soho where Hampson "accidentally brushed" the thigh of an undercover police officer.

Kenneth Younger

Philip Noel-Baker, who was Minister of State for Air, appointed Younger as his Parliamentary Private Secretary immediately after the election.

Liberal Democrats deputy leadership election, 2014

Lorely Burt, MP for Solihull since 2005 (where she is defending a majority of 175 votes), and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Danny Alexander, was widely seen as the front-runner candidate.

Linda Gilroy

In parliament she was a member of the European legislation select committee from 1997 until after the 2001 General Election when she was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Raynsford.

Michael Clapham

He was a member of the Trade and Industry Committee from 1992 to 1997 and again from 2003; in between he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Alan Milburn following the 1997 general election, but he resigned over Harriet Harman's decision to cut lone parent benefits in December of that year.

Norman Miscampbell

He never held ministerial office, but served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Sir Peter Rawlinson from 1972 to 1973, while Rawlinson was Attorney General.

Oswald Phipps, 4th Marquess of Normanby

On his release, Lord Normanby was appointed a MBE and was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, Viscount Cranborne from 1944–45 and briefly to the Lord President of the Council, Lord Woolton in 1945.

Roland Moyle

Moyle's father, Arthur Moyle, became a Labour Member of Parliament and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Clement Attlee.

Susan Jones

From October 2010 - October 2011 Jones served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Harriet Harman MP, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, in her role as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.

Thomas Fairfax, 13th Lord Fairfax of Cameron

In 1945 he was elected a Scottish Representative Peer, and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Lord President of the Council (Lord Woolton and Lord Salisbury respectively) from 1951 to 1953 and to the Minister of Materials (Lord Woolton) between 1953 and 1954.


see also

Frank Roy

In 2001 Roy resigned as parliamentary private secretary to Helen Liddell in the wake of the cancellation of a visit to Carfin Grotto by Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Sandra Osborne

Osborne served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Helen Liddell, the Secretary of State for Scotland, from June 2002 until she stepped down in March 2003 over her opposition to going to war with Iraq.