Chief Whip

In British politics, the Chief Whip of the governing party in the House of Commons is usually also appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, a Cabinet position.

An exception occurred on 1 April 2019 when Julian Smith chose to criticise his own government and Prime Minister.

The Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords also holds the role of Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, while the Government Deputy Chief Whip in the Lords holds the role of Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard.

[citation needed] While the whip was formally introduced to British politics by the Irish Parliamentary Party under Charles Stewart Parnell in the 1880s,[citation needed] in 1846 the Duke of Wellington advised the new Conservative Party leader Lord Stanley to ensure that his "whippers-in" were personally loyal.

[citation needed] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the use of the term "whippers-in" was first recorded in the parliamentary sense in the Annual Register of 1772.

This letter informs them of the schedule for the days ahead and includes the sentence "Your attendance is absolutely essential" next to each debate in which there will be a vote.

Neither these instructions, which are visible to everyone in the chamber, nor the "whip" letter at the start of the week, are recorded in Hansard, as they are considered a matter internal to the political party.

[citation needed] If the party has a large Commons majority, it can make allowances for MPs who are away on important business, or whose political circumstances require them to take a particular issue very seriously.

Several Conservative MPs voted against the official party line, and Smith's authority was weakened.

[8]A minister who defies the whip is generally dismissed from their job immediately, if they have not already resigned, and returns to being a backbencher.

[9] The Government Chief Whip's office is headed by a Principal Private Secretary, who also acts as a go-between for ministers and the opposition to keep parliamentary business moving.

The first officeholder, Charles Harris, was appointed privately in 1919 to assist Lord Edmund Talbot, the Conservative chief whip.

He was retained by successive Conservative chief whips on a private basis, serving as their secretary during periods when the party was in government (1922–23, 1924–29 and 1935 onwards) until 1939, when the post formally became part of the civil service (as Assistant to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury) and Harris was appointed into it, with a salary of £850.