Steve Barclay, the Member of Parliament for North East Cambridgeshire, served as Chief of Staff from February 2022 to July 2022, following the resignation of Dan Rosenfield.

He was the first MP to serve in this capacity, and also retained his position as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and a Cabinet Minister, compounding the Chief of Staff's power and access in UK Government.

[4] The position of Downing Street Chief of Staff was recreated by Tony Blair upon his becoming prime minister in 1997[citation needed] and Jonathan Powell held the post for ten years.

This was changed upon Scholar's scheduled departure in January 2008, when the title chief of staff was divided amongst two posts in an attempt to split the political policy communication role from the management of civil servants within Number 10.

[9] As such, senior civil servant Jeremy Heywood replaced Scholar as principal private secretary to the prime minister, a position he had held under Tony Blair several years earlier, with the role of chief of strategy and principal advisor to the prime minister (effectively chief of staff) being given to political advisor Stephen Carter.

[9][10] After less than a year in the post Carter resigned, becoming a minister and receiving a peerage amid speculation that his 'chief of strategy' role had insufficient authority to direct cross-government operations;[11] the position of chief of staff remained vacant for the remainder of the Brown Premiership.

[12] Upon David Cameron becoming prime minister in May 2010, Conservative advisor Edward Llewellyn was appointed as Downing Street chief of staff.

[21] In February 2022, following months of scandal owing to Partygate, Rosenfield, alongside other senior aides Martin Reynolds, Munira Mirza and Jack Doyle, resigned.