Minister for Europe

The Minister for Europe is an executive position in the Government of the United Kingdom, in charge of affairs with the European Union. The office is usually a junior Minister of State position in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. But, when Denis MacShane was replaced by Douglas Alexander after the 2005 general election, Alexander held the post with the right to attend Cabinet meetings, a right also held by some other Ministers of State. This right did not survive Alexander as his replacement did not have the right. Moreover, his replacement, Chris Bryant, was not a Minister of State but a more junior Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State. The current minister is David Lidington.

List of Ministers for Europe

Name		Portrait	Entered office	Left office	Political party	Prime Minister
	Douglas Hurd		May 1979	June 1983	Conservative	Margaret Thatcher
	Malcolm Rifkind		June 1983	11 January 1986	Conservative
	Lynda Chalker		January 1986	24 July 1989	Conservative
	Francis Maude		1989	28 November 1990	Conservative
	Tristan Garel-Jones		28 November 1990	1993	Conservative	John Major
	David Heathcoat-Amory		1993	1994	Conservative
	David Davis		1994	May 1997	Conservative
	Doug Henderson		5 May 1997	28 July 1998	Labour	Tony Blair
	Joyce Quin		28 July 1998	28 July 1999	Labour
	Geoff Hoon		28 July 1999	11 October 1999	Labour
	Keith Vaz		11 October 1999	11 June 2000	Labour
	Peter Hain		11 June 2000	24 October 2002	Labour
	Denis MacShane		28 October 2002	11 May 2005	Labour
	Douglas Alexander		11 May 2005	8 May 2006	Labour
	Geoff Hoon		8 May 2006	27 June 2007	Labour
	Jim Murphy		28 June 2007	3 October 2008	Labour	Gordon Brown
	Caroline Flint		3 October 2008	5 June 2009	Labour
	Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead		5 June 2009	13 October 2009	Labour
	Chris Bryant		13 October 2009	12 May 2010	Labour
	David Lidington		12 May 2010	Incumbent	Conservative	David Cameron

See also

• Minister of State for European Affairs: the counterpart in the Republic of Ireland
• Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (France)