Jeremy John Heywood, Baron Heywood of Whitehall,GCB,CVO (31 December 1961 – 4 November 2018) was a Britishcivil servant who served asCabinet Secretary toDavid Cameron andTheresa May from 2012 to 2018 andHead of the Home Civil Service from 2014 to 2018. He served as thePrincipal Private Secretary to Prime MinistersTony Blair andGordon Brown from 1999 to 2003 and 2008 to 2010. He also served asDowning Street Chief of Staff and the firstDowning StreetPermanent 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 11 days later on 4 November 2018.

The Right Honourable The Lord Heywood of Whitehall GCBCVO
Heywood in 2015
Cabinet Secretary
In office 1 January 2012 – 24 October 2018
Prime Minister	David Cameron Theresa May
Preceded by	Sir Gus O'Donnell
Succeeded by	Sir Mark Sedwill
Head of the Home Civil Service
In office September 2014 – 24 October 2018
Prime Minister	David Cameron Theresa May
Preceded by	Bob Kerslake
Succeeded by	Mark Sedwill
Downing StreetPermanent Secretary
In office 11 May 2010 – 1 January 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Simon Case (2020)
Downing Street Chief of Staff
In office 10 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Stephen Carter
Succeeded by	Edward Llewellyn
Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 23 January 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Tom Scholar
Succeeded by	James Bowler
In office 4 June 1999 – 10 July 2003
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Sir John Holmes
Succeeded by	Ivan Rogers
Personal details
Born	Jeremy John Heywood (1961-12-31)31 December 1961 Glossop, Derbyshire, England
Died	4 November 2018(2018-11-04) (aged 56) London, England
Spouse	Suzanne Cook ​ (m. 1997)​
Children	3
Parents	Peter Heywood (father) Brenda Swinbank (mother)
Education	Bootham School
Alma mater	Hertford College, Oxford (BA) London School of Economics (MSc)

Heywood was born on 31 December 1961 inGlossop,Derbyshire, England.^[4] His parents were Peter Heywood andBrenda Swinbank,^[5][6][7] who met as teachers atAckworth School in West Yorkshire, one of a fewQuaker educational establishments in England.

Heywood was educated at theprivateQuakerBootham School in York, where his father taught English.^[8] He studied history and economics atHertford College, Oxford (where he was later made an Honorary Fellow), graduating with aBachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1983. He later studied economics atLondon School of Economics and received hisMaster of Science in 1986.^[9] He also attended the Program for Management Development atHarvard Business School in 1994.^[4]

From 1983 to 1984, Heywood worked as an economist at theHealth and Safety Executive, before moving to the Treasury,^[10] and became thePrincipal Private Secretary to theChancellor of the Exchequer, thenNorman Lamont, at the age of 30, having to help mitigate the fallout fromBlack Wednesday after less than a month in the job.^[11] He remained in this role throughout the 1990s underChancellorsKenneth Clarke andGordon Brown. He was economic and domestic policy secretary toTony Blair from 1997 to 1998,^[10] before being promoted to be thePrincipal Private Secretary to Prime MinisterTony Blair in 1999. He stayed in this position until 2003.

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

UponGordon Brown becoming Prime Minister in 2007, Heywood returned to government as Head of Domestic Policy and Strategy at theCabinet 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 ofDowning Street Chief of Staff, afterStephen 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, afterDavid 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 firstDowning Street Permanent Secretary, a role created for the purpose of liaising between theCabinet Secretary and the Chief of Staff within the Cabinet Office.^[16]

On 11 October 2011 it was announced that Heywood would replaceSir Gus O'Donnell as the Cabinet Secretary, the highest-ranked official inHer Majesty's Civil Service, upon the latter's retirement in January 2012. It was also announced that Heywood would not concurrently hold the roles ofHead of the Home Civil Service and Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office, as would usually be the case. These positions instead went toSir Bob Kerslake andIan 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^[update], 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 visitedThe Guardian's offices to warn its then editor,Alan Rusbridger, thatThe Guardian's involvement withEdward Snowden could make it a target for "our guys" in British intelligence and "Chinese agents on your staff".^[10]

He was criticised when he vetoed the release to theChilcot Inquiry of 150 letters and records of phone calls between Tony Blair and PresidentGeorge W. Bush before the2003 Iraq War.^[20]

Heywood and former Prime Minister David Cameron were criticised in the 2021 investigation report into theGreensill lobbying scandal. Heywood was found to be primarily responsible for businessmanLex Greensill being given a role in government and "extraordinarily privileged" access into10 Downing Street.^[21][22]

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

After years of heavy smoking, despite having quit around twenty years earlier, Heywood was diagnosed withlung 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]

Heywood was the son of archaeologistBrenda Swinbank.

In 1997, Heywood marriedSuzanne Cook. Together they had three children, including twins.^[4] Cook, who became aCBE 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 theExor Group since 2016 and chair ofCNH 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]

Heywood was appointedCompanion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the2002 New Year Honours,^[31] and aCommander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 2003.^[32] He was promoted toKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the2012 New Year Honours, and was thereby granted thetitleSir.^[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 toKnight 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 MinisterTheresa May nominated him for alife peerage in recognition of his distinguished service to public life.^[25] He was createdBaron Heywood of Whitehall, ofGlossop in the County ofDerbyshire, on 26 October 2018,^[38] shortly before his death and before he was able to take his seat in theHouse of Lords.^[39][40][41]

• Profile fromThe Guardian
• Profile from theFinancial Times