Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is not recognised in United Kingdom law, so any post-holder must be given an additional title in order to have legal status and to be paid a salary additional to the parliamentary one. The last Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, was appointed Lord President of the Council, a minister who presides over meetings of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council and has few other formal responsibilities, for this reason. On some occasions the post of First Secretary of State has been used; when John Prescott lost his departmental responsibilities in a reshuffle in 2005, he was given the office to
Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations The Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations was a ministerial post in the Government of the United Kingdom from 1947 until 1966. The holder was responsible for assisting the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations in dealing with British relationships with members of the Commonwealth of Nations (its former colonies). After 1966 the post was merged with the Minister of State for the Colonies and became the Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs. "Arthur Henderson held the post for less than two months before the position was abolished. It was then recreated in 1959."