Election Watch: How many former Secretaries of State at DLUHC are standing at the next election?
Well, I certainly chose an interesting week to get married! *
In the few days before the big day, the Prime Minister called a general election and the current Secretary of State for Levelling-Up, Housing & Communities announced that he was not going to stand in it.
These announcements have, rather inconveniently, brought my LURA-Watch coverage to an abrupt (but probably temporary) halt. I shall spend the next six weeks doing planning-related election coverage instead**. Most of which is likely to be manifesto related.
As we do not have the Conservative or Labour manifestos quite yet, this post is devoted to satisfying my own curiosity.
Namely answering a question that no one is asking. Following Michael Gove's announcement last week: How many of our Former Conservative Secretaries of State and Housing Ministers*! are actually standing for re-election in July?
Secretaries of State since 2010
| Name | Tenure | Status |
| Eric Pickles | May 2010 to May 2015 | Entered House of Lords |
| Greg Clark | May 2015 to July 2016 July 2022 to Sept 2022 | Standing Down |
| Sajid Javid | Jan 2018 to April 2018 | Standing Down |
| James Brokenshire | April 2018 to July 2019 | Deceased |
| Robert Jenrick | July 2019 to Sept 2021 | Standing for Re-election |
| Michael Gove | Sept 2021 to July 2022 Oct 2022 to present | Standing Down |
| Simon Clarke | Sept 2022 to Oct 2022 | Standing for Re-election |
Number of Secretaries of State standing for re-election: 2 out of a possible 5.
Housing/Planning Ministers since 2010
| Name | Tenure | Status |
| Grant Shapps | May 2010 to Sept 2012 | Standing for Re-election |
| Mark Prisk | Sept 2012 to Oct 2013 | left the Commons Nov 2019 |
| Kris Hopkins | Oct 2013 to July 2014 | left the Commons May 2017 |
| Brandon Lewis | July 2014 to July 2016 | Standing Down |
| Gavin Barwell | July 2016 to June 2017 | Entered House of Lords |
| Alok Sharma | June 2017 to Jan 2018 | Standing Down |
| Dominic Raab | Jan 2018 to July 2018 | Standing Down |
| Kit Malthouse | July 2018 to July 2019 | Standing for Re-election |
| Esther McVey | July 2019 to Feb 2020 | Standing for Re-election |
| Christopher Pincher | Feb 2020 to Feb 2022 | left the Commons Sept 2023 |
| Stuart Andrew | Feb 2022 to July 2022 | Standing Down |
| Marcus Jones | July 2022 to Sept 2022 | Standing for Re-election |
| Lee Rowley | Sept 2022 to Oct 2022 Nov 2023 to present | Standing for Re-election |
| Lucy Frazer | Oct 2022 to Feb 2023 | Standing for Re-election |
| Rachel Maclean | Feb 2023 to Nov 2023 | Standing for Re-election. |
Number of Housing/Planning Ministers standing for re-election: 7 out of a possible 11.
*It was an amazing day - and one that I can't stop talking about - further details (and photos) are available on request.
** amongst other things.
*! Based on lists of ministers that I found on Wikipedia, Google searches and this handy primer from the Institute for Government. If anyone else declares they are standing down in the next day or two, I will update the post.
In a letter published on X, formerly Twitter, the Conservative MP for Surrey Heath said he was stepping down as it is time that "a new generation should lead".
Aberdeen-born Gove, who has represented the Surrey constituency since 2005, has had two spells as levelling up secretary, from 2021 to July 2022, when he was sacked amid challenges to Boris Johnson’s premiership; and from October 2022, when then new prime minister Rishi Sunak appointed him in his first cabinet.”
Key Contact
