Cabinet of the United Kingdom The Cabinet of the United Kingdom was a group of senior ministers , including the Prime Minister , in charge of the British government . From at least 1796 , the Cabinet was in session in the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street . ( TV : " World War Three " ) The Douglas - Home Cabinet only lasted a year but suffered a quick turnover of Defence Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister s , after Defence Secretary Stephen Mulryne and the Deputy PM were assassinated in November 1963 . Their replacements , Sir Francis White and Sir Robert Devere , were part of and themselves died . ( AUDIO : " " ) The initial Wilson Cabinet had James Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Richard Crossan as Minister for Housing and Local Government . ( AUDIO : " State of Emergency " , " The Concrete Cage " ) In 1970s , a Cabinet session was interrupted by a phone call from Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge - Stewart , who spoke with a Minister of Ecology and the Prime Minister . ( TV : " The Green Death " ) The Third Doctor was called to an emergency Cabinet meeting during a Dalek attack . ( COMIC : " The Threat from Beneath " ) In 1976 , the Cabinet included Prime Minister Shirley Williams , Home Secretary Tony Benn , and Roy Jenkins . ( PROSE : " No Future " ) In 1997 , following a general election , David Staines was Home Secretary and Lord Greyhaven was the Science Minister . ( PROSE : " The Dying Days " ) In 1999 , the Cabinet included Prime Minister Terry Brooks , Deputy Prime Minister Philip Cotton , and Defence Secretary Jennifer Hamilton . Part of the Cabinet , including Brooks , collaborated with the Voracian s to get out of a budget issue . ( PROSE : " Millennium Shock " ) While he disguised himself as Acting Prime Minister Joseph Green , in 2006 , Jocrassa Fel - Fotch Passameer - Day Slitheen told General R . Asquith that he had " cancelled " the airlifting in of the " rest of the Cabinet " , as " [ t ] hey ' d only get in the way . " ( TV : " Aliens of London " ) Following his election as Prime Minister in 2008 , , under the identity of " Harold Saxon " , attended a ultimately brief session of his Cabinet in which he , after cracking a joke and thanking them , accused them of being traitors who abandoned their political parties to jump on his bandwagon . He rigged the deskphone speakers on the Cabinet Room table to release a lethal gas that killed the Cabinet ministers , while using a gas mask to protect himself and mock his victims . ( TV : " The Sound of Drums " ) In 2010 , the Cabinet included Prime Minister Brian Green , Deputy PM and Foreign Secretary Rick Yates , Home Secretary Denise Riley , and a black male Defence Secretary . During a COBRA meeting , the Cabinet agreed to try and hand over children to the 456 , haggling over the exact amount , rather than go to war and lose . Sixty two failed asylum seekers were considered expendable and offered up , only for the 456 to demand 325 , 000 instead . A grim discussion was had and in order to ensure extended family couldn ' t be part of the ' lottery ' , Riley proposed they hand over the bottom 10 % of the school league tables as those children were expendable . The Cabinet agreed and a cover story was established . Torchwood attempted to blackmail the Cabinet into ceasing the plan but failed : Torchwood ' s attempt to intimidate the 456 only confirmed its power and hardened the Cabinet ' s stance . Control over the operation was taken by America ' s General Austin Pierce , as Britain was seen as having caused the issue ; this allowed the Cabinet to say the events of the day " were in American hands " and not there ' s . Denise Riley blackmailed her way into control of the Prime Minister ' s office . ( TV : " " , " " ) When the world was overrun by tree s around the 2010s , the Cabinet went into emergency meeting and announced that they ' d use controlled burns to get vital services through . ( TV : " In the Forest of the Night " )