Steve Barclay (politician)
Barclay was brought up in Lancashire. His father worked as a full-time trades union official and then in IT, and his mother worked full-time as a civil service administrator. He is the youngest of three brothers, all of whom played rugby. Barclay was educated at King Edward VII School, an independent school in Lytham St Annes. After completing his A levels, he joined the British Army on a Gap Year Commission, attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and served as a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers for five months. His is the first generation of his family to go to university, and he read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He then studied at the College of Law at its Chester campus, to qualify as a solicitor in 1998. Barclay completed his training contract as an articled clerk with a large London law firm before working at Axa Insurance, the Financial Services Authority, and Barclays. After leaving university in 1994, Barclay joined the Conservative Party. He was a member of the A-List and was twice an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate, contesting Manchester Blackley in 1997 and Lancaster and Wyre in 2001, coming within 500 votes of winning the latter seat. In 2007, Barclay took over as the organiser of the Carlton Club political dinner, which raises funds for the Conservative Party's target seats. Barclay was selected in January 2008 to replace the outgoing North East Cambridgeshire MP, Malcolm Moss, and was elected at the May 2010 general election with a majority of 16,425. After the election, he was soon elected by fellow MPs to become a member of the Public Accounts Committee, which scrutinises Government spending. ConservativeHome named him as one of a minority of loyal Conservative backbench MPs not to have voted against the Government in any substantive rebellions. Following the appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister, Barclay was appointed as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury. He later joined HM Treasury as Economic Secretary to the Treasury in June 2017 and the Department for Health and Social Care as the Minister of State for Health in January 2018. Barclay was appointed as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union in November 2018 following the resignation of Dominic Raab. It was reported that Barclay would focus on the domestic preparations rather than negotiations for Brexit. He retained his role as Brexit Secretary in Boris Johnson's first and second cabinets. He ceased to be Brexit Secretary at 11:00 pm on 31 January 2020, the moment the Department for Exiting the European Union was closed down as the UK formally left the EU. Barclay was appointed as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in February 2020, replacing Rishi Sunak who had been appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer following the resignation of Sajid Javid. In May 2020, Barclay appeared on BBC's "Question Time" and was corrected by presenter Fiona Bruce about the number of people who had received the Government's COVID-19 testing. In a cabinet reshuffle on 15 September 2021, Barclay succeeded Michael Gove as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office. In February 2022, during the Partygate scandal, Johnson accused Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile during his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The BBC found no evidence to suggest that Starmer was involved in the decision not to prosecute Savile while he was DPP. While Johnson later clarified his statement, his failure to apologise triggered the resignation of Munira Mirza, Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit, on 3 February 2022, which subsequently triggered the resignation of numerous other Downing Street staff, including Chief of Staff Dan Rosenfield. On 5 February, Johnson announced the appointment of Barclay as the new chief of staff. Barclay is the first serving MP to hold this position. He said he would pursue a "smaller state" in his new role. Barclay and his wife Karen have a son and a daughter.
Parliamentary career
Stephen Paul Barclay (born 3 May 1972) is a senior British politician serving as Downing Street Chief of Staff since 2022, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster since 2021. He previously served as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 2018 to 2020, Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2020 to 2021 and Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2021 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Cambridgeshire since 2010. Qualifying as a solicitor from the College of Law, he worked in the financial sector while being active in the Conservative Party and unsuccessfully contesting Manchester Blackley in 1997 and Lancaster and Wyre in 2001. Elected at the 2010 general election, Barclay served as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 2016 to 2017 and Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2017 to 2018. After the 2018 cabinet reshuffle, he became Minister of State for Health. In November 2018, he was appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union by Theresa May following the resignation of Dominic Raab. He was retained in the position by Boris Johnson and remained in office until the United Kingdom officially left the EU on 31 January 2020. Barclay quickly returned to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the 2020 cabinet reshuffle. He was later promoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office in the 2021 cabinet reshuffle. In February 2022, Barclay also assumed the responsibilities of the Downing Street chief of staff, following the resignation of Dan Rosenfield.