The Lord Booth-Smith | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2025 | |
| Downing Street Chief of Staff | |
| In office 25 October 2022 – 5 July 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Rishi Sunak |
| Preceded by | Mark Fullbrook |
| Succeeded by | Sue Gray |
| Special Adviser to theChancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office February 2020 – July 2022 | |
| Chancellor | Rishi Sunak |
| Special Adviser to thePrime Minister | |
| In office July 2019 – July 2020 | |
| Prime Minister | Boris Johnson |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 21 August 2024 Life peerage | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Liam David Scott-Smith 1986 (age 38–39) Stoke-on-Trent, England |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | Loughborough University |
Liam David Scott Booth-Smith, Baron Booth-Smith (born 1987), is a British political adviser who served asDowning Street Chief of Staff under Prime MinisterRishi Sunak from October 2022 to July 2024. He previously served as Sunak'sde facto chief of staff as head of the Joint Economic Unit duringhis chancellorship.
Liam was born Liam Scott-Smith in 1986[1] inStoke-on-Trent and was raised by his mother Lisa, a single parent who lived on a council estate in northStaffordshire, as the eldest of three children.[2][3]
Booth-Smith received funding to attendNewcastle-under-Lyme School under theAssisted Places Scheme to help bright students enter elite schools. After the scheme was discontinued in 1997, he attended the state-fundedStoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College. He read politics and social policy atLoughborough University, where he also played cricket.[3]
After a role as the head of communications and research at the public sector consultancy IMPOWER Consulting, Booth-Smith served as chief executive of the think tankLocalis between 2016 and 2018, before serving as aspecial adviser toJames Brokenshire asSecretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2018 to 2019, whereRishi Sunak was a junior minister.[4] In July 2019, Booth-Smith became a senior adviser to prime ministerBoris Johnson upon his accession as prime minister.[4] He had previously worked at the think tankPolicy Exchange, specialising in housing policy.[1]
In February 2020, as head of the Joint Economic Unit between10 Downing Street and11 Downing Street, Booth-Smith became thede facto chief of staff to Sunak, who was thenChancellor of the Exchequer,[5] overseeing theTreasury's response to theCOVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Booth-Smith gained the nickname "Travolta of the Treasury" for wearing a leather jacket with his shirt buttons undone.[3][5]
Booth-Smith led Sunak's leadership campaign during theJuly–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, and again in the subsequentOctober 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.[5]
Booth-Smith was appointed asDowning Street Chief of Staff in October 2022 after Sunak became prime minister. He succeededMark Fullbrook, who was chief of staff toLiz Truss.[1]
In 2023, theNew Statesman named Booth-Smith as the ninth-most influential figure in British right-wing politics.[6]
He was paid between £140,000 and £145,000 per year.[7]
In June 2025, Booth-Smith joined the AI firmAnthropic as chief of external affairs. Upon his appointment, theAdvisory Committee on Business Appointments required him not to lobby or use privileged government information for two years, imposing strict limits on his communication with the UK government, so as to prevent undue influence given his prior senior government role.[8]
Booth-Smith was nominated for alife peerage in the2024 Dissolution Honours.[9][10][11] He was createdBaron Booth-Smith, ofNewcastle-under-Lyme in theCounty of Staffordshire, on 21 August 2024.[12]
He married Olivia Oates in 2022.[13] Oates was a special adviser toSimon Clarke as a junior minister to Sunak at the Treasury,[13] and previously a special adviser toRobert Jenrick as housing secretary.[3][14] He has two children.[3]
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Booth-Smith | Followed by |
