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United Kingdom Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Stephen Doughty since 8 July 2024
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Status	Incumbent
Reports to	Foreign Secretary
Nominator	Secretary of State
Appointer	The King (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's pleasure
Formation	1979
First holder	Douglas Hurd

The minister of state for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, is a ministerial position within the Government of the United Kingdom, in charge of affairs with Europe. The minister can also be responsible for government policy towards European security; defence and international security; the Falkland Islands; polar regions; migration; protocol; human resources; OSCE and Council of Europe; relations with Parliament; British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus; and FCO finance, knowledge and technology.

History

The office currently a Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Despite being a junior ministerial role, the position has sometimes conferred the right to attend meetings of the Cabinet, which is occasionally granted to other such ministers at the Prime Minister's discretion. This first occurred when Denis MacShane was replaced by Douglas Alexander after the 2005 general election, although Alexander's successor ceased to have this right. When Chris Bryant held the office, it was not as Minister of State but as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Europe and Asia.

The responsibilities of the office were next appointed to a Minister of State in 2010 by then Prime Minister David Cameron. He appointed David Lidington, who held the office for over six years. In July 2016, the responsibility for the relationship with the European Union, which represented the greater part of British policy towards Europe, became the brief of a new Cabinet level post, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, or more informally, Brexit Secretary. With the winding up of DEXEU, the department led by the Brexit Secretary, responsibility was transferred to the Cabinet Office, first under Michael Gove, and then under Lord Frost who was made a member of the Cabinet and held the ministerial position of Minister of State at the Cabinet Office. Through this period, any residual responsibilities for European relations that remained with the Foreign Office were combined with the portfolio of the traditionally more junior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. The post of Minister of State for Europe and the Americas was held by Alan Duncan until he resigned on 22 July 2019; Duncan was largely regarded as the second most senior-ranking Foreign Office Minister behind the Foreign Secretary. On 25 July 2019, newly elected Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Conservative MP for Tamworth, Christopher Pincher to the role as part of his ministerial reshuffle. Johnson promoted Wendy Morton to the role of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for European Neighbourhood and the Americas to replace Pincher in February 2020. In December 2021, upon the resignation of Lord Frost, ministerial responsibility returned to the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Chris Heaton-Harris became Minister of State for Europe as responsibility for the United Kingdom's relations with the European Union was moved from the Cabinet Office back to the Foreign Office. In February 2022, James Cleverly was appointed Minister of State for Europe and North America. His former position as Minister of State for Middle East, North Africa and North America was the second highest position in the Foreign Office; his new position as Europe Minister then took its place as the deputy to the Foreign Secretary.

The post is not to be confused with the Minister of State within the Department for Exiting the European Union, the department created by Prime Minister Theresa May following the UK's vote to leave the EU in 2016 and abolished by Boris Johnson following the UK's exit from the EU on 31 January 2020. They supported the work of the department overseeing the UK's exit from the EU rather than overseeing government policy towards all-European affairs.

List of ministers

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	P.M.		F.Sec.
Minister of State for Europe
	Douglas Hurd		4 May 1979	9 June 1983	Conservative		Thatcher	Carrington
								Pym
	Malcolm Rifkind		9 June 1983	11 January 1986				Howe
	Lynda Chalker		11 January 1986	24 July 1989
	Francis Maude		25 July 1989	28 November 1990				Major
								Hurd
	Tristan Garel-Jones		28 November 1990	27 May 1993			Major
	David Heathcoat-Amory		27 May 1993	20 July 1994
	David Davis		20 July 1994	2 May 1997
								Rifkind
	Doug Henderson		5 May 1997	28 July 1998	Labour		Blair	Cook
	Joyce Quin		28 July 1998	28 July 1999
	Geoff Hoon		28 July 1999	11 October 1999
	Keith Vaz		11 October 1999	11 June 2001
	Peter Hain		11 June 2001	24 October 2002				Straw
	Denis MacShane		28 October 2002	11 May 2005
	Douglas Alexander		11 May 2005	8 May 2006
	Geoff Hoon		8 May 2006	28 June 2007				Beckett
	Jim Murphy		28 June 2007	3 October 2008			Brown	Miliband
	Caroline Flint		3 October 2008	5 June 2009
	Glenys Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead		5 June 2009	13 October 2009
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Europe and Asia
	Chris Bryant		13 October 2009	11 May 2010	Labour		Gordon Brown	Miliband
Minister of State for Europe
	David Lidington		12 May 2010	14 July 2016	Conservative		Cameron	Hague Hammond
Minister of State for Europe and the Americas
	Alan Duncan		15 July 2016	22 July 2019	Conservative		May	Johnson Hunt
	Christopher Pincher		25 July 2019	13 February 2020	Conservative		Johnson	Raab
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for European Neighbourhood and the Americas
	Wendy Morton		13 February 2020	19 December 2021	Conservative		Johnson	Raab
Minister of State for Europe
	Chris Heaton-Harris		19 December 2021	8 February 2022	Conservative		Johnson	Truss
Minister of State for Europe and North America
	James Cleverly		8 February 2022	7 July 2022	Conservative		Johnson	Truss
Minister of State for Europe
	Graham Stuart		7 July 2022	6 September 2022	Conservative		Johnson	Truss
	Leo Docherty		7 September 2022	27 October 2022	Conservative		Truss	Cleverly
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Europe
	Leo Docherty		27 October 2022	26 March 2024	Conservative		Sunak	Cleverly Cameron
Minister of State for Europe
	Nus Ghani		26 March 2024	5 July 2024	Conservative		Sunak	Cameron
Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories
	Stephen Doughty		8 July 2024	Incumbent	Labour		Starmer	Lammy

References

1. "Minister of State (Europe, North America and Overseas Territories) - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 2024-07-25.
2. "Minister of State for Europe - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 2022-07-12.
3. "The Times & The Sunday Times". Archived from the original on 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
4. "Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan resigns ahead of Boris Johnson's expected premiership". Sky News. London. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
5. Swinford, Steven (21 June 2017). "Boris Johnson's deputy Alan Duncan tells him to resist temptation to 'play games'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
6. editor, Patrick Wintour Diplomatic (3 October 2017). "Brexit vote was 'tantrum' by British working class, says Alan Duncan". Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017 – via www.theguardian.com. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
7. @SMcDonaldFCO (17 February 2020). "@DominicRaab & @annietrev have divided portfolios among 7 joint @foreignoffice & @DFID_UK ministers:@morton_wendy is Minister for European Neighbourhood & the Americas" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
8. "Minister of State (Minister for Middle East, North Africa and North America) - GOV.UK". Archived from the original on 2022-02-06. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
9. "Minister of State (Minister for Europe and North America) - GOV.UK". Archived from the original on 2022-02-25. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
10. "Minister of State - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
11. "Minister of State - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2017-11-23.

See also

• Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
• Minister of State for European Affairs, the counterpart in Ireland

v t e Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Headquarters: Foreign and Commonwealth Office Main Building Hanslope Park Lancaster House
Ministers	Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Minister of State for Development Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Indo-Pacific Minister of State for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Latin America and Caribbean
Civil Service	Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Executive agencies	Wilton Park
Executive non-departmental public bodies	British Council Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK Great Britain–China Centre Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission Westminster Foundation for Democracy
Other bodies	Independent Commission for Aid Impact BBC World Service British International Investment Chevening Scholarship Programme FCDO Services Government Communications Headquarters Secret Intelligence Service/MI6
Category

v t e Minister for European affairs in the UK Foreign Office
Margaret Thatcher	Hurd (1979–1983) Rifkind (1983–1986) Chalker (1986–1989) Maude (1989–1990)
John Major	Garel-Jones (1990–1993) Heathcoat-Amory (1993–1994) Davis (1994–1997)
Tony Blair	Henderson (1997–1998) Quin (1998–1999) Hoon (1999) Vaz (1999–2001) Hain (2001–2002) MacShane (2002–2005) Alexander (2005–2006) Hoon (2006–2007)
Gordon Brown	Murphy (2007–2008) Flint (2008–2009) Kinnock (2009) Bryant (2009–2010)
David Cameron	Lidington (2010–2016)
Theresa May	Duncan (2016–2019)
Boris Johnson	Pincher (2019–2020) Morton (2020–2021) Heaton-Harris (2021–2022) Cleverly (2022) Stuart (2022)
Liz Truss	Docherty (2022)
Rishi Sunak	Docherty (2022–2024) Ghani (2024)
Keir Starmer	Doughty (2024–)

• Foreign ministers of the United Kingdom
• United Kingdom and the European Union
• Ministers and ministries responsible for European affairs
• Lists of government ministers of the United Kingdom
• Ministerial offices in the United Kingdom
• 1979 establishments in the United Kingdom