Few make it to the top table
Those who do take a median 4 years to get there from their first post.
Most people who become ministers never get near the cabinet table. Of the 1,173 ministers since 1979, 643 made it to Minister of State and 274 to Secretary of State or higher. 11 became prime minister.
For the 167 who started as junior ministers and climbed to Secretary of State, the median wait was 3.9 years. A few were promoted within a year; 23 waited a decade or more. Another 60 went straight into the cabinet on their first appointment, usually a new government's senior figures or peers brought in from outside.
Ministers are not getting younger. The median age at first appointment has stayed in the mid-to-high forties for four decades, rising when a long-serving opposition takes power with a backlog of experienced MPs (1997, 2010).
Show the data
| Period | Median age | New ministers |
|---|---|---|
| 1980–84 | 42 | 51 |
| 1985–89 | 43.0 | 60 |
| 1990–94 | 45.0 | 64 |
| 1995–99 | 50.0 | 174 |
| 2000–04 | 46 | 57 |
| 2005–09 | 47 | 81 |
| 2010–14 | 50.0 | 174 |
| 2015–19 | 47 | 131 |
| 2020–24 | 48 | 205 |
| 2025–29 | 44.5 | 52 |