Prime Minister and the Executive

What is the Executive?

What is the Executive?

refers to the govt

• consists of cabinet ministers, state ministers, civil servants and SPADs

Royal perogative

powers of the monarchy that are transferred to the PM

• patronage, negotiating treaties, declaring war

2005 Constitutional Reform Act

stopped the fusion of powers and allowed the judiciary to be independent

Civil servants

plan and implement policy which govt decides

• meant to be impartial and non partisan

SPADs

status of temp civil servants and help PM and ministers to make decisions

• often party political

171% growth in # of SPADs between 1997-2021

• Steve Hilton, Director of Strategy 2010-16: helped Cameron rebrand Tories as ‘green’ and ‘progressive’

• Dominic Cummings, Chief Advisers 2019-20: wanted to bring more data scientists into govt to modernise, famously flouted lockdown rules

Who are Sunak’s SPADs?

• Liam Booth-Smith

• Eleanor Shawcross

• Douglas McNeill

• Nerissa Chesterfield

What are the ministerial ranks?

1. Secretaries of State (22) - heads of big govt departments

2. Ministers (incl whips, 50) - work inside departments and are responsible for particular policy areas

3. Parliamentary Party Secretaries (51) - ‘eyes + ears’ if ministers in Parliament, unpaid

Role of Prime minister

• provides political leadership

• chairs cabinet = ‘first among equals’

• head of govt

• responsible for govt policy

• appoints ministers

Changes to the PM’s prerogative

Fixed Term Parliament Act 2011

• removed govt’s power to call an election and gave it to Parliament (repealed in 2022)

Blair reduced his powers in:

• appointment of Church leaders (Crown Nominations Commission 1974)

• giving of honours (Honours Committee 2005)

• Appointment of senior judges (Judicial appointments commission)

Why is there arguably an increase of the PM’s informal powers?

because Britain does not have a precise constitution which spells out the executive’s powers

Evidence of increase use of PM’s informal powers

• Chief policy maker - PM themselves come up w policies nowadays

  • Blair and No10 policy unit, Johnson and Cummings, May and Olly Robins

• More control over economy and foreign policy

  • Blair (War on Terror), Brown and Sunak (Economy)

• Parliamentary leader

  • PMQs emphasise this, they are popular and sought after

• Chief spokesperson of the govt

  • using media to send out messages eg Johnson during COVID

Limitations to the PM’s power

• strong parliamentary majority is needed to have control over it

• increasingly effective opposition

• media image

  • Brown calling woman bigoted during 2010 election campaign

• personal popularity

  • May had 70% approval rate

• economic situation

  • Truss lasted only 50 days after Kwarteng’s mini-budget ‘crashed’ the economy

• international reputation

  • Sunak is increasingly popular in India

• key policy concerns

  • cost of living crisis etc

individual ministerial responsibility

ministers are individually responsible for the work of their departments and are answerable to Parliament for all their department’s activities

• expected to accept responsibility for any failures, injustices or policies that are criticised in Parliament

  • Suella Braverman Oct 2022 - leaks through her personal email

  • Matt Hancock June 2021 - breaching social distance

  • Caroline Ansell Oct 2020 - rebelling to support free school meals

  • Amber Rudd Oct 2018 - Windrush

collective cabinet responsibility

convention that states members of cabinet must publicly support all governmental decisions made in Cabinet, even if they privately disagree

if member wishes to openly object they are obliged to resign

• has been suspended over the EU Referendum 2016 and EEC referendum 1975

  • Tony Benn vs Roy Jenkins during EEC ref - 8m watched 2 Labour cabinet ministers arguing on EEC publicly

Rare examples of resignations over policy

• Robin Cook March 2003 - resigned over the Iraq war

• Baroness Warsi 2014 - resigned as Junior Foreign Office Minister over govt stance on Israel-Gaza conflict

Types of cabinet models

• Cabinet govt

• Prime ministerial govt

• Core executive model

• Presidentialism

cabinet govt model

govt decisions = made at the heart of cabinet

• cabinet is directly accountable to Parliament

• PM = ‘first amongst equals’

• cabinet members left to manage their dept as independently as possible

prime ministerial model

govt decisions made in Cabinet but PM is responsible overall

• PM dominates policy making

• PM makes full use of prerogative powers

• PM supervises individual depts

core executive model

govt decisions are made in Cabinet by a core group of ministers whilst others have little real power

• Tony Blair and Brown (Chancellor) 97-2007

presidential model

govt decisions are not made in cabinet but by the PM and a close group of usually unelected advisers

• PM controls all major policy developments and is the focal point of govt and the state

• rise of title such as Director of Communications after Blair which came from the White House

  • Blair and Alistair Campbell, Cameron and Andy Coulson (Dir. of Comms) Ed Llewelly (Chief of State), Johnson and Allegra Stratton

Roles of the cabinet

• decision making

• coordinating departments

• discussing direction of govt

Electoral success of Thatcher 1979-90

1979 GE - 43 seat majority

1983 GE - 144 seat majority

Key events during Thatcher’s premiership 1979-90

1981 Race Riots

1982 Falklands War

1984 Brighton Bombing

1986 Westland affair

1990 Poll Tax riots then resignation

Thatcher key policies 1979-90

• privatisation of nationalised industries

• curbing trade union power

• reduction of welfare state

• strong national defence and foreign policy

Successes of Thatcher 1979- 90

• House Act 1980 with Right to Buy

• Win in Falklands 1982 - led to dramatic rise in her popularity, helped her win 144 majority in 1983 GE (also had weak opposition, Foot and his ‘suicide note’)

• Miners strike 85-86 ended in the NUM surrendering and all unions credibility being ruined

• privatisation grew

• economy improved, growth rate increased

Failures of Thatcher 1979-90

• 1986 Westland affair - damaged her authority

• economy struggled from 1987 onwards, 1990 inflation was back at 1979 levels

• introduction of Poll tax - highly contentious led to riots throughout Scotland and England in 89-9, led to her most loyal supporters (incl. Geoffery Howe) resigning and her Cabinet forcing her out

Electoral success of Blair 1997-2007

1997 GE - 179 seat majority

2001 GE- 166 seat majority

Key events during Blair’s premiership 1997-2007

1997 F1 scandal

1999 intervention in Kosovo

2001 9/11 and the War on Terror

2003 Iraq war

2005 7/7 bombings

2005 Cash for Honours scandal

Blair’s key policies

• devolution

• peace in N Ireland

• HoL reform

• welfare reform

• Tuition fees introduction

• interventionist foreign policy

Successes of Blair 97-2007

• modernised govt w his reforms

  • devolution, Human rights act, independence of the Bank of England, HoL reform

• improvement of public services

  • lowest ever NHS waiting times, most extensive school building programme ever

• unified Labour under the Third Way

• successful foreign intervention in Kosovo 1999, Sierra Leone 2000

• Good Friday Agreement

Failures of Blair 97-2007

• Bernie Ecclestone affair - affected Labour’s credibility as an anti sleaze party

• 4 lost Common votes in 2005/6 over attempt to hold terror subjects for 90 days without charge

• Weapons of mass destruction not found in Iraq - led to distrust from public

• Cash for Honours scandal - Blair interviewed by policy twice, led to further distrust from public