Lessons from the last Conservative government: Ministers who stay put get things done

An (un)expected call from the prime minister. A ministerial car journey to a new departmental home. An impassioned speech to their new civil servants. Day one of being a minister brings a flurry of excitement and frenetic activity, but new ministers don’t stay new for long.  When the dust settles they need to get to work with delivering on the prime minister’s priorities.  

Our latest batch of Ministers Reflect interviews – which feature reflections from junior ministers over 14 years of Conservative government – suggest that one thing that can empower a minister to be effective is staying put.

It takes time to learn how to be a minister in a new department

Whether new to the ministerial ranks or making the move from another department, it takes time to learn how things work in government and how to build relationships with officials and key stakeholders. But compared to being in the private sector the stakes are high. Paul Scully – who was minister for London for nearly four years alongside other briefs – sums up the pressures of the office: “you can’t fail as the government […] you’ve got to make sure that every decision is excellent.”

Junior ministers are often responsible for legislation, a process which can take time to master. Rebecca Pow, minister for nature between 2019 and 2024, recalls how the prime minister tasked her with steering the Environment Act through parliament on top of her other responsibilities. To get on top of this large piece of legislation Pow recalls using “prep cards” to learn and memorise the details of the bill. Scully also had to overcome a learning curve and was supported by his bill team as he guided legislation through the House – he went on to oversee “8% of the entire legislative programme over those three or four years”. 

Ministers who stay in place for longer are more effective

When a minister works out the intricacies of their role and their department, they can be more effective. As Pow states: “I do know that I probably was far more effective for society by staying there and I know that the people that knew, knew that”. According to John Glen – who holds the record for the longest serving economic secretary to the Treasury – it is only “through intense immersion and hard work and experience accumulated over time that become familiar [with the role].” Glen recalls how he “relished the familiarity and grip” that longevity provided – it meant that he could have “detailed conversations about the different views of the insurance industry” and position himself as “an interface between industry and regulators”.  

Staying in one department also helps ministers develop deeper relationships with their officials which they can use to push through their agenda. Nick Gibb, who was schools minister for over a decade, explains that officials learn more about “where you are coming from or what your vision is.” Officials develop a deeper understanding of a minister’s goals as they come to know what to expect from a long-serving minister – this consistency is key to getting things done.  

Expertise does not always lead to promotion

Ministerial appointments are a fundamentally political process, and prime ministers must balance expertise and performance against factors including relationships within the party and media performance.

The ministers who we interviewed did not make it to cabinet and sometimes felt pigeonholed in their roles. Pow recalled pushing “to stay in Defra through successive leadership changes, but you could say this may have been to my own detriment because I didn’t get promoted”, while Gibb suggests that being recognised as an expert in his policy area “prevented me from going into cabinet because I think you need some breadth of experience”.  

But whether it was setting up the compensation scheme for victims of the infected blood scandal, guiding the Environment Act through parliament, or introducing phonics checks in schools, the ministers who we interviewed were proud of what they were able to achieve during their tenures. Scully, speaking of his pride in setting up the independent review into the Post Office Horizon scandal says “it’s just grabbing something that was seemingly going nowhere, a bit of an impasse, through to something that I knew I could look at any of them in the eye.”  

With growing rumours of a reshuffle in the coming weeks and months, the prime minister and his team will have choices about who stays put, who moves and who goes. What our Ministers Reflect interviews show is that there can be much to be gained by letting ministers develop in their posts or departmental contexts. And for ministers with an eye on the reshuffle, Glen’s advice is worth bearing in mind: “Don’t think about the next job – think about doing this job well.”