Secretary of State for Business and Trade

**Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy**, (often known as the **Business Secretary**) is a cabinet position in the United Kingdom government. The office is responsible for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The post has been held by Kemi Badenoch since February 2023.

### Industry, trade and regional development (1963–1964)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|Took office|Left office|Political party|colspan=2|Prime Minister|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Edward Heath|20 October 1963|16 October 1964||Conservative|style="background-color:"||Alec Douglas-Home|

### Trade and industry (1970–1974)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|Took office|Left office|Political party|colspan=2|Prime Minister||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||John Davies|15 October 1970|5 November 1972||Conservative|rowspan=2 style="background-color:"||rowspan=2|Edward Heath|
||Peter Walker|5 November 1972|4 March 1974||Conservative|||||

### Industry-prices-trade (1974–1983)

|colspan=4|Secretary of State for Industry|colspan=4|Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection|colspan=4|Secretary of State for Trade|rowspan=2|Political party|colspan=2 rowspan=2|Prime Minister|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Tony Benn|5 March 1974|10 June 1975||||||||||
|rowspan=3|Shirley Williams|rowspan=3|5 March 1974|rowspan=3|10 September 1976|||||||
|rowspan=2|Peter Shore|rowspan=2|5 March 1974|rowspan=2|8 April 1976|rowspan=5|Labour|rowspan=2 style="background-color:"||rowspan=2|Harold Wilson|
|rowspan=4|Eric Varley|rowspan=4|10 June 1975|rowspan=4|4 May 1979|||||||
|rowspan=2|Edmund Dell|rowspan=2|8 April 1976|rowspan=2|11 November 1978|rowspan=3 style="background-color:"||rowspan=3|James Callaghan|||
|rowspan=2|Roy Hattersley|rowspan=2|10 September 1976|rowspan=2|4 May 1979|||||||
|John Smith|11 November 1978|4 May 1979||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Keith Joseph|rowspan=2|4 May 1979|rowspan=2|14 September 1981|colspan=4 rowspan=4 align="center"||||||
|John Nott|5 May 1979|5 January 1981|rowspan=4|Conservative|rowspan=4 style="background-color:"||rowspan=4|Margaret Thatcher||||
|rowspan=2|John Biffen|rowspan=2|5 January 1981|rowspan=2|6 April 1982|||||||
|rowspan=2|Patrick Jenkin|rowspan=2|14 September 1981|rowspan=2|12 June 1983|||||||
|The Lord Cockfield|6 April 1982|12 June 1983||||||||||
|colspan=15|_Departments merged in 1983 and responsibilities transferred to the Department for Trade and Industry._|||||||||||

### Trade and industry (1983–2007)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|Took office|Left office|Political party|Cabinet|colspan="2"|Prime minister|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Cecil Parkinson|12 June 1983|11 October 1983||Conservative|rowspan="4"|Thatcher II|||
|rowspan=7|Margaret Thatcher|||||||||
||Norman Tebbit|16 October 1983|2 September 1985||Conservative|||||
||Leon Brittan|2 September 1985|22 January 1986||Conservative|||||
||Paul Channon|24 January 1986|13 June 1987||Conservative|||||
||David Young, Baron Young of Graffham|13 June 1987|24 July 1989||Conservative|rowspan="3"|Thatcher III|||
||Nicholas Ridley|24 July 1989|13 July 1990||Conservative|||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Peter Lilley|rowspan=2|14 July 1990|rowspan=2|10 April 1992|rowspan=2|Conservative|
||Major I|||||||||
|rowspan=3|John Major|||||||||
||Michael Heseltine|10 April 1992|5 July 1995||Conservative|rowspan="2"|Major II|||
||Ian Lang|5 July 1995|2 May 1997||Conservative|||||
||Margaret Beckett|2 May 1997|27 July 1998||Labour|rowspan="3"|Blair I|||
|rowspan=6|Tony Blair|||||||||
||Peter Mandelson|27 July 1998|23 December 1998||Labour|||||
||Stephen Byers|23 December 1998|8 June 2001||Labour|||||
||Patricia Hewitt|8 June 2001|6 May 2005||Labour||Blair II|||
||Alan Johnson|6 May 2005|5 May 2006||Labour|rowspan="2"|Blair III|||
||Alistair Darling|5 May 2006|27 June 2007||Labour|||||
|colspan="9" style="width:10px"|_Department abolished 2007. Responsibilities transferred to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills._|||||||||

### Business, enterprise and regulatory reform (2007–2009)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|Took office|Left office|Political party|Cabinet|colspan="2"|Prime Minister|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||John Hutton|28 June 2007|3 October 2008||Labour|rowspan="2"|Brown|
|rowspan=2|Gordon Brown|||||||
||Peter Mandelson, Baron Mandelson|3 October 2008|5 June 2009||Labour|||
|colspan="9"|_Department abolished 2009. Responsibilities transferred to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills._|||||||

### Business, innovation and skills (2009–2016)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|Took office|Left office|Political party|Cabinet|colspan="2"|Prime Minister|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Peter Mandelson, Baron Mandelson|5 June 2009|11 May 2010||Labour||Brown|
|Gordon Brown||||||||
||Vince Cable|12 May 2010|8 May 2015||Liberal Democrats|style="background-color:#dddddd"|Cameron-Clegg|
|rowspan="2"|David Cameron|||||||
||Sajid Javid|11 May 2015|14 July 2016||Conservative||Cameron II|
|colspan="9"|_Department abolished 2016. Responsibilities transferred to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy._|||||||

### Energy and climate change (2008–2016)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|colspan=2|Term of office|Political party|Cabinet|colspan="2"|Prime Minister|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Ed Miliband|3 October 2008|11 May 2010||Labour||Brown|style="background-color:"||Gordon Brown||
||Chris Huhne|12 May 2010|3 February 2012||Liberal Democrats|rowspan="2" style="background-color:#dddddd"|Cameron-Clegg|rowspan="3" style="background-color:"||rowspan="3"|David Cameron|
||Ed Davey|3 February 2012|8 May 2015||Liberal Democrats|||||||
||Amber Rudd|11 May 2015|14 July 2016||Conservative||Cameron II|||||
|colspan=9|_Department abolished 2016. Responsibilities transferred to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy._|||||||||||

### Business, energy and industrial strategy (2016–2023)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|Took office|Left office|Political party|Cabinet|colspan="2"|Prime Minister|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Greg Clark|rowspan="2"|14 July 2016|rowspan="2"|24 July 2019|rowspan="2"|Conservative||May I|
|rowspan="2"|Theresa May|||||||||||
||May II|||||||||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Andrea Leadsom|rowspan="2"|24 July 2019|rowspan="2"|13 February 2020|rowspan="2"|Conservative||Johnson I|
|rowspan="4"|Boris Johnson|||||||||||
|rowspan="3"|Johnson II|||||||||||
||Alok Sharma|13 February 2020|8 January 2021||Conservative|||||||
||Kwasi Kwarteng|8 January 2021|6 September 2022||Conservative|||||||
||Jacob Rees-Mogg|6 September 2022|25 October 2022||Conservative||Truss|||||
|Liz Truss||||||||||||
||Grant Shapps|25 October 2022|7 February 2023||Conservative||Sunak|||||
|Rishi Sunak||||||||||||
|colspan="9" style="width:10px"|_Department abolished February 2023. Responsibilities distributed to the newly created Departments for Business and Trade, Energy Security and Net Zero, and Science, Innovation and Technology._|||||||||||

### Business and trade (2023–present)

|colspan=3|Secretary of State|Took office|Left office|Political party|Cabinet|colspan=2|Prime Minister|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Kemi Badenoch|7 February 2023|5 July 2024||Conservative||Sunak|
|Rishi Sunak||||||||
||Jonathan Reynolds|5 July 2024|Incumbent||Labour||Starmer|
|Keir Starmer||||||||

## Infobox (official post)

- **post**:
 Secretary of State for Business and Trade
- **insignia**: Coat of arms of the United Kingdom (2022, lesser arms).svg
- **insigniacaption**: Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, Royal Arms of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's Government
- **department**: Department for Business and Trade
- **image**: Peter Kyle Official Cabinet Portrait, July 2024 (cropped) 2.jpg
- **incumbent**: Peter Kyle
- **incumbentsince**: 5 September 2025
- **status**: Secretary of State (United Kingdom), Secretary of State
Minister of the Crown
- **appointer**: Monarchy of the United Kingdom, The Monarch

- **member of**: Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet
Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Privy Council
Board of Trade
- **reports to**: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, The Prime Minister
- **first**: Edward Heath

- **formation**: * 20 October 1963:

* 7 February 2023:

- **salary**: £159,038 per annum
(including £86,584 Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP salary)
- **website**: [https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-and-trade Department for Business and Trade]