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Jeremy Heywood

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Heywood of Whitehall
GCB CVO
Sir Jeremy Heywood at the Civil Service Board meeting, January 2015
Heywood in 2015
Cabinet Secretary
In office
1 January 2012 – 24 October 2018
Prime Minister
Preceded bySir Gus O'Donnell
Succeeded bySir Mark Sedwill
Head of the Home Civil Service
In office
September 2014 – 24 October 2018
Prime Minister
Preceded byBob Kerslake
Succeeded byMark Sedwill
Downing Street Permanent Secretary
In office
11 May 2010 – 1 January 2012
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded bySimon Case (2020)
Downing Street Chief of Staff
In office
10 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byStephen Carter
Succeeded byEdward Llewellyn
Principal Private Secretary to the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office
23 January 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byTom Scholar
Succeeded byJames Bowler
In office
4 June 1999 – 10 July 2003
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded bySir John Holmes
Succeeded byIvan Rogers
Personal details
Born
Jeremy John Heywood

(1961-12-31)31 December 1961
Glossop, Derbyshire, England
Died4 November 2018(2018-11-04) (aged 56)
London, England
Spouse
​
(m. 1997)​
Children3
Parents
EducationBootham School
Alma mater

Jeremy John Heywood, Baron Heywood of Whitehall, GCB, CVO (31 December 1961 – 4 November 2018) was a British civil servant who served as Cabinet Secretary to David Cameron and Theresa May from 2012 to 2018 and Head of the Home Civil Service from 2014 to 2018. He served as the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1999 to 2003 and 2008 to 2010. He also served as Downing Street Chief of Staff and the first Downing Street Permanent Secretary.[1][2] After he was diagnosed with lung cancer,[3] he took a leave of absence from June 2018, and retired on health grounds on 24 October 2018, receiving a life peerage; he died a fortnight later on 4 November 2018.

Early life and education

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Heywood was born on 31 December 1961 in Glossop, Derbyshire, England.[4] His parents were Peter Heywood and Brenda Swinbank,[5][6][7] who met as teachers at Ackworth School in West Yorkshire, one of a few Quaker educational establishments in England.

Heywood was educated at the private Quaker Bootham School in York, where his father taught English.[8] He studied history and economics at Hertford College, Oxford (where he was later made an Honorary Fellow), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1983. He later studied economics at London School of Economics and received his Master of Science in 1986.[9] He also attended the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School in 1994.[4]

Career

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From 1983 to 1984, Heywood worked as an economist at the Health and Safety Executive, before moving to the Treasury,[10] and became the Principal Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, then Norman Lamont, at the age of 30, having to help mitigate the fallout from Black Wednesday after less than a month in the job.[11] He remained in this role throughout the 1990s under Chancellors Kenneth Clarke and Gordon Brown. He was economic and domestic policy secretary to Tony Blair from 1997 to 1998,[10] before being promoted to be the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999. He stayed in this position until 2003.

He became a managing director of the UK Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley where he was embroiled in the aftermath of the collapse of Southern Cross Healthcare.[12]

Upon Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister in 2007, Heywood returned to government as Head of Domestic Policy and Strategy at the Cabinet Office. In January 2008 he was once again appointed Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister;[13] (it has sometimes been claimed that he was subsequently and additionally appointed to the position of Downing Street Chief of Staff, after Stephen Carter's resignation as the Prime Minister's Chief of Strategy,[14] but Heywood himself denied that this was ever the case).[13]

In 2010, after David Cameron became Prime Minister, Heywood was replaced as Principal Private Secretary by James Bowler.[15] He returned to the civil service and was subsequently appointed the first Downing Street Permanent Secretary, a role created for the purpose of liaising between the Cabinet Secretary and the Chief of Staff within the Cabinet Office.[16]

Cabinet Secretary

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On 11 October 2011 it was announced that Heywood would replace Sir Gus O'Donnell as the Cabinet Secretary, the highest-ranked official in Her Majesty's Civil Service, upon the latter's retirement in January 2012. It was also announced that Heywood would not concurrently hold the roles of Head of the Home Civil Service and Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office, as would usually be the case. These positions instead went to Sir Bob Kerslake and Ian Watmore respectively. On 1 January, Heywood was knighted and officially made Cabinet Secretary. In July 2014 it was announced that Kerslake would step down and Heywood would take the title of Head of the Home Civil Service in the coming Autumn.[17] In September, Heywood duly succeeded Kerslake.[18] As of September 2015, Heywood was paid a salary of between £195,000 and £199,999, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.[19]

In June 2013, he visited The Guardian's offices to warn its then editor, Alan Rusbridger, that The Guardian's involvement with Edward Snowden could make it a target for "our guys" in British intelligence and "Chinese agents on your staff".[10]

Criticism

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He was criticised when he vetoed release to the Chilcot Inquiry of 150 letters and records of phone calls between Tony Blair and President George W. Bush before the 2003 Iraq War.[20]

Heywood and former Prime Minister David Cameron were criticised in the 2021 investigation report into the Greensill lobbying scandal. Heywood was found to be primarily responsible for businessman Lex Greensill being given a role in government and "extraordinarily privileged" access into 10 Downing Street.[21][22]

It has been claimed that Heywood lobbied Barclays to lower its estimates of the cost of borrowing dollars during what became known as the Libor scandal.[23]

Illness and death

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After years of heavy smoking, despite having quit around twenty years earlier, Heywood was diagnosed with lung cancer in June 2017 and took a leave of absence from his position in June 2018 owing to his illness.[3][24] He retired on health grounds on 24 October 2018,[25] and died on 4 November at the age of 56.[24][26]

Personal life

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Heywood was the son of archaeologist Brenda Swinbank.

In 1997, Heywood married Suzanne Cook. Together they had three children, including twins.[4] Cook, who became a CBE in the King’s Birthday Honours in 2024, is a former civil servant who moved into the private sector: she has been managing director of the Exor Group since 2016 and chair of CNH Industrial since 2018.[27][28]

In 2021, Suzanne published a biography, What Does Jeremy Think?: Jeremy Heywood and the Making of Modern Britain.[29][30]

Honours

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Heywood was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2002 New Year Honours,[31] and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 2003.[32] He was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2012 New Year Honours, and was thereby granted the title Sir.[33][34] The Parliamentary Public Administration Committee cited the example of Heywood's knighthood as an automatic honour granted due to his position.[35] He was promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 31 October 2018.[36][37]

On Heywood's retirement as Cabinet Secretary on 24 October 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May nominated him for a life peerage in recognition of his distinguished service to public life.[25] He was created Baron Heywood of Whitehall, of Glossop in the County of Derbyshire, on 26 October 2018,[38] shortly before his death and before he was able to take his seat in the House of Lords.[39][40][41]

Country Date Appointment Ribbon Post-nominal letters Notes
United Kingdom 31 December 2001 Companion of the Order of the Bath CB Promoted to KCB in 2011
United Kingdom 24 December 2003 Commander of the Royal Victorian Order CVO
United Kingdom 31 December 2011 Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath KCB Promoted to GCB in 2018
United Kingdom 31 October 2018 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath GCB

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Senior Appointments, 10 Downing Street website, 23 January 2008, archived from the original on 16 January 2010, retrieved 19 January 2010
  2. ^ "Cabinet Office Structure Charts" (PDF). Cabinet Office HM Government. May 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2010. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  3. ^ a b "Former head of UK civil service, Sir Jeremy Heywood, dies at 56". Global Government Forum. 5 November 2018.
  4. ^ a b c "Heywood, Sir Jeremy (John), (born 31 Dec. 1961), Cabinet Secretary, since 2012, and Head of Civil Service, since 2014, Cabinet Office". Heywood, Sir Jeremy (John). Oxford University Press. 1 December 2017. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U20034. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4 – via Who's Who 2018.
  5. ^ "Book Review – Recollections of a Female Archaeologist: A Life of Brenda Swinbank". HARN Weblog. 29 June 2018. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  6. ^ Recollections of a Female Archaeologist.
  7. ^ Andrew Gregory (5 March 2012). "The most powerful unelected man in Britain". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  8. ^ Bootham School Register. York, England: Bootham Old Scholars Association. 2011.
  9. ^ "Jeremy Heywood". Richardbacon.org.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  10. ^ a b c Beckett, Andy (27 January 2016). "The most potent, permanent and elusive figure in British politics". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  11. ^ Bowlby, Chris (21 October 2011). "Profile: Jeremy Heywood – the next Cabinet Secretary". BBC News. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  12. ^ Nick Robinson (12 June 2007). "A new and vital role". BBC News. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  13. ^ a b Tingay, Paeony; Durrant, Tim (10 February 2022). "Downing Street chief of staff". Institute for Government. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  14. ^ "Brown chooses former Blair aide". Bbc.co.uk. BBC News. 12 June 2007. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  15. ^ Mortimore, Roger; Blick, Andrew (2018). Butler's British Political Facts. Springer. p. 220. ISBN 9781137567093. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  16. ^ Gentleman, Amelia (6 December 2012). "Sir Jeremy Heywood: the civil servant propping up the government". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  17. ^ Rajeev Syal; Patrick Wintour (15 July 2014). "Anger over 'political' departure of civil service head Sir Bob Kerslake". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  18. ^ "Sir Jeremy Heywood". GOV.UK. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  19. ^ "Senior officials 'high earners' salaries as at 30 September 2015 – GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. 17 December 2015. Archived from the original on 4 May 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  20. ^ Elgot, Jessica (24 October 2018). "Jeremy Heywood: a look back at the cabinet secretary's illustrious career". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  21. ^ Syal, Rajeev (22 July 2021). "Lex Greensill given 'extraordinarily privileged' No 10 access, inquiry finds". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  22. ^ Boardman, Nigel (22 July 2021). "Review into the Development and Use of Supply Chain Finance in Government" (PDF). Cabinet Office. gov.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  23. ^ "Whistleblowing banker who went to prison speaks out". BBC News. 17 June 2023. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  24. ^ a b "Ex-civil service chief Sir Jeremy Heywood dies". BBC News. 4 November 2018.
  25. ^ a b Statement on Sir Jeremy Heywood, gov.uk, 24 October 2018
  26. ^ "Former Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood dies from cancer at 56". ITV News. 4 November 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  27. ^ "Heywood, Suzanne Elizabeth, (Lady Heywood), (born 25 Feb. 1969), Managing Director, Exor Group, since 2016; Director, CNH Industrial, since 2016". Heywood, Suzanne Elizabeth, (Lady Heywood). Oxford Press. 1 December 2017. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U281905. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 5 November 2018 – via Who's Who 2018.
  28. ^ "Profiles – Suzanne Heywood". Bloomberg. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
  29. ^ Heywood, Suzanne (2022). What Does Jeremy Think?: Jeremy Heywood and the Making of Modern Britain. London: William Collins. ISBN 9780008353162.
  30. ^ "The Bedpan: When Darzi saved Mandelson". Health Service Journal. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  31. ^ "No. 56430". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2001. p. 2.
  32. ^ "No. 57151". The London Gazette. 24 December 2003. p. 15870.
  33. ^ "No. 60009". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2011. p. 2.
  34. ^ "New Year Honours 2012: full list of recipients". The Telegraph. 31 December 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  35. ^ Public Administration Select Committee (17 July 2012). "3. Increasing public trust in the honours system". Second Report: The Honours System. www.parliament.uk. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  36. ^ "No. 62459". The London Gazette. 7 November 2018. p. 20169.
  37. ^ "Knight Grand Cross conferred on Sir Jeremy Heywood". GOV.UK.
  38. ^ "No. 62453". The London Gazette. 1 November 2018. p. 19809.
  39. ^ "PM Theresa May and Sir Mark Sedwill's statement on Jeremy Heywood". GOV.UK. Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street. 4 November 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  40. ^ Garter Principal King of Arms (25 October 2018). "Summons for The Lord Heywood of Whitehall". Twitter. Retrieved 25 October 2018 – via Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis.
  41. ^ Lord Fowler, Lord Speaker (5 November 2018). "Deaths of Members". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 793. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Lords. col. 1527.
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Government offices
Preceded by Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
1999–2003 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
2008–2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Downing Street Chief of Staff
2008–2010 		Succeeded by
New title Downing Street Permanent Secretary
2010–2012 		Office abolished
Preceded by Cabinet Secretary
2012–2018 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Head of the Home Civil Service
2014–2018 		Succeeded by
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