The Downing Street Chief of Staff is the most senior political appointee in the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, acting as a senior aide to the Prime Minister and a powerful, non-ministerial position within the British Government. The role of Chief of Staff when created had executive authority and at the time was referred to as "almost certainly the most powerful unelected official in the country", and possibly "the third most powerful altogether" after the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since 2007 the role does not legally have executive authority, though the post holder remains a very senior adviser to the Prime Minister. The current Downing Street Chief of Staff is Edward Llewellyn.
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“My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
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—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“What a squalid and irresponsible little profession it is.... Nothing prepares you for how bad Fleet Street really is until it craps on you from a great height.”
—Ken Livingstone (b. 1945)
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—Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925)
“I shall not want false witness to condemn me,
Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt.
The ancient proverb will be well effected:
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)