Ministerial responsibility - knowledge flaschards

Collective & Individual Ministerial Responsibility are conventions regarding how the Cabinet and ministers operate and are held to account in the UK system.  Like much of the workings of our system, it …

 isn’t an official rule or law - but the fact the principle has been accepted and upheld since the 1700s, makes it nearly as good as an ‘official rule’.

The conventions are recorded in the Cabinet Manual - a document ordered by PM Gordon Brown in 2010, & which came into use a year later under Cameron.  Again, whilst this document has no greater status than mere guidance, in reality …

it would be difficult for a government which repeatedly blatantly ignored it, to have the confidence of Parliament, or the public.  Nevertheless there have often been a number of cases where ministers have refused to resign for failures of individual responsibility.

Collective responsibility is the doctrine that once the Cabinet has decided government policy, all ministers – both those in the Cabinet & all junior ministers - agree to be bound to that policy and publicly support it. The Cabinet is then …

 responsible jointly and as a ‘single entity’, to Parliament for that policy. Because of this, the government is assured of votes from all ministers in the government.  This is known as ‘the payroll vote’ and means any PM should be able to count on 120 odd votes straightaway.

Meetings of the Cabinet - where debate can occur between members in order to reach a decision about a policy - should be kept secret. This means …

that the internal disagreements of Cabinet ministers will be kept private.  The public face of the government instead presents a single, united front.

If a member of the Cabinet, or a junior minister, finds they cannot publicly support agreed government policy publicly, they must resign. Since the heart of collective responsibility is that all ministers abide and publicly support government policy, clearly someone who finds themselves unable to do so, must …

step down from the government, and return to being a backbench MP.  If a minister publicly dissents from government policy and does not resign, the PM is expected to sack them.

Ministerial resignations because of opposition to government policy are not as usual as for failures of individual ministerial responsibility.  But because they are comparatively rare, these types of resignations are politically impactful:

they show a crack in the face of the government, which is open to criticism and scrutiny, and cast doubt on government policy.

When they occur they can be as 

• acts of protest 

  • e.g. the high profile minister Robin Cook resigned in 2003 over the Iraq War

• acts of conscience:

• e.g. Robert Jenrick resigned as Immigration Minister in 2023 because he didn’t think the anti-illegal immigration Rwanda Bill would work 

• Lord Agnew resigned as counter-fraud minister in 2022 arguing the government’s Covid loan scheme was open to misuse, and that as much as 26% of loans worth £10bn had been lost in fraud.  He wasn’t directly responsible for the loans, but felt the overall government policy was enough of a failure that he could no longer support it

• acts to undermine a leader or government they have lost faith in 

• e.g. Chancellor Nigel Lawson resigned under Thatcher in 1989 due to dictatorial style and focus on special advisors advice, over ministers

• act for future political gain 

  • e.g. Boris Johnson resigned as Foreign Secretary in 2018, over Theresa May’s failure to get a Brexit deal - presumably calculating his future leadership ambitions would be better served this way.

Collective responsibility also binds the Cabinet to the PM.  Should the government lose a Vote of No Confidence in the Commons, then it is the government collectively - not the …

PM alone - who this applies to.  As a result, if the government were to lose a no-confidence vote, the cabinet would resign as one.

In recent years there have been examples of exceptions to the rule of collective responsibility. Here collective responsibility is suspended and members of the Cabinet may be allowed to choose either side.  This may be done to avoid mass resignations over …

a controversal issue, or to allow voting on ‘issues of conscience’, such as gay marriage.

There have been three recent examples of a ‘suspension of collective responsibility’ - in two cases these were consciously agreed: 

1. In the Coalition Cabinet 2010-15 an agreement was constructed between the Conservatives and Lib Dems, as to the areas of government where collective responsibility would still apply, and other areas where it would not.  It didn’t apply for example on the issue of renewing Britain’s Trident nuclear submarine programme, or intervention in the Syrian civil war, issues everyone knew the parties didn’t agree on.  

2.  In the EU referendum of 2016, Cabinet ministers were free to choose either side - so ministers like Michael Gove openly campaigned against the PM and most of the government’s Remain policy.  16 Cabinet members supported Remain and 5 Leave. This was because EU membership was a long running sore in the Conservative Party.  (Collective responsibility had also been suspended in the 1975 EU referendum).

3. In the third case, under PM Theresa May in 2016-19 there was no conscientious suspension of collective responsibility, but it nevertheless became clear that the Cabinet was as divided as the party over which Brexit deal should be sought.  Ultimately 42 of the 60 ministers that resigned during this administration did so over Brexit.  But it was also noticeable how Cabinet ministers could often criticise the government position, without being forced to resign (most going therefore by their own choice).  This was due to a combination of May’s weak position as PM, and the uniquely controversial subject of Brexit.In addition May in 2016 allowed Cabinet ministers to dissent over government plans to expand Heathrow airport, since two leading members of it, Boris Johnson and Justine Greening had previously opposed it, because their constituencies would be affected.  Rather than force them to resign, May (even though she was relatively strong as this was prior to the 2017 election) allowed them to oppose government policy.

There are also times when collective responsibility is challenged. As mentioned, by this convention discussions within Cabinet should remain a confidential matter within the government – but Cabinet rifts can and do go public at times. Personal differences and departmental conflict, especially in turbulent times such as the Brexit debates at the end of 2018 and start of 2019, mean that disputes within the Cabinet can go public.

• For example, Boris Johnson (then Foreign Secretary) and Michael Gove (then Environment Secretary) collaboratively challenged the position on Brexit of Theresa May and her Chancellor, Philip Hammond, by writing a report urging a harder withdrawal from the EU. This report was (deliberately?) leaked, and suddenly it was shown that the cabinet was not united on the most important issue of the day. 

Problems also arise when the Prime Minister does not consult the cabinet on many issues. 

• This was a particular problem when ministers resigned from the Thatcher and Blair governments, frequently speaking out about not having a hand in many cabinet decisions at all. These two Prime Ministers had a large degree of power, having large majorities, and, therefore, did not have to spend as much time and energy trying to reach a consensus. 

• In comparison, Theresa May’s lack of a majority after the 2017 General Election, forced her to choose a Cabinet representing all areas of Conservative opinion - to ensure her MPs remained loyal to her government.  But this led to so many opposing views over the UK’s future relationship with the EU - which needed to be established in the Brexit deal - that the government started to collapse.  In May 2019 after months of defeats, Theresa May tried to get a last gasp Brexit deal over the line.  But in pitiful scenes few of her own MPs even bothered to come to the Commons to listen to her.  Some Cabinet ministers also stayed away - and others made it clear privately they wouldn’t support the deal.  May dropped the last gasp effort, and resigned two days later.

CMR Case Study - 2022 Rishi Sunak, Chancellor under Boris Johnson:

Criticisms of Johnson came to a head when deputy chief whip Chris Pincher resigned over sexual assault allegations - and it emerged that Johnson had ignored evidence of previous complaints.Public anger grew over the PMs integrity. Sunak resigned and was joined by …

Sajid Javid the Health Secretary (In total, 61 members of the gov resigned in 24 hours – the largest number in British political history) citing policy differences with Johnson. Johnson was fatally wounded, and resigned two days later

CMR Case Study - 2020 Sajid Javid, Chancellor under Boris Johnson:

In February 2020 after a cabinet reshuffle, Johnson demanded that Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid sack all his special advisers and replace them with advisers he selected, basically giving power to the PM’s office. Javid resigned in February 2020 rather than …

 accepting the condition. His departure, just weeks after a large election win, underlined Johnsons determination to centralise power to downing street and is  an example of Johnson asserting his power over cabinet

CMR Case Study - 2019 Amber Rudd, Work and Pensions Secretary under Boris Johnson:

Johnson dismissed 21 pro-EU conservative MPs for rebelling over Brexit. Amber Rudd resigned from both the Cabinet and the Conservative Party out of protest. Her resignation …

alongside Boris Johnson’s own brother Jo Johnson, illustrated cabinet-level rejection of his hardline Brexit stance.

CMR Case Study - 2019 Various resignations once Boris Johnsons was going to become PM:

Anticipating Johnson’s imminent premiership and his pro-Brexit direction, 6 ministers resigned in protest. This included Phillip Hammond, David Gauke and Rory Stewart. Their exits showed …

early fractures within the Conservative Party and cleared the way for Johnson's cabinet reshuffle. They were considered to be on the remain side so they felt they would most likely be sacked anyway. 

CMR Case Study - 2016 Iain Duncan Smith, Work and Pensions Secretary (and ex-Cons leader) under David Cameron:

Iain Duncan Smith (former Conservative leader) resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary in 2016, as he felt that some cuts, in particular to disability benefits (cut by £4bn) were “indefensible”.After serving in the role for 6 years, Duncan resigned; some saw it as a culmination of the disagreement over these budget cuts, a long-term feud with the Treasury over Universal Credit, issues with …

Osbourne and Cameron over Brexit.He had held the position for 6 years (unusually long time in one position) and may have used it as an opportunity to leave by his choice rather than getting the sack.

CMR Case Study - 2010-15 Vince Cable, Business Secretary (& Lib Dem) in the Coalition Government led by the Conservative PM David Cameron:

Between 2010-15 Lib Dems Vince Cable was the coalition government’s business secretary. Frequently critical of his conservative colleagues, in 2014, he publicly criticised George Osbourne’s cuts to public spending in his autumn budget statement. The coalition agreement signed in 2010 had agreed this wasn't an area that the cabinet was allowed to publicly disagree on. He was also …

caught by an undercover reporter making very ‘unministerially comments’ about how he was going to deal with the proposed takeover bid of BskyB by Murdoch New Corporation. Cabel never resigned - under normal circumstances, he would have been pressured to resign or be sacked - however, Cameron instead transferred his media affair responsibilities to another Cabinet minister. He later became lib dem leader, his popularity in the party perhaps boosted by his outspoken criticism of the conservatives during the coalition?

CMR Case Study - 2003 Robin Cook, leader of the House (& ex-Foreign Secretary) under Tony Blair:

Robin Cook commented on the Blair government's Iraq policy and the proposal to invade Iraq to remove Saddam Hussain- accused of having weapons of mass destruction ( WMDs).He urged Britons to work together with European Partners and the UN, and not go out and support the USA. However …

the government made the controversial decision to join the war with the USA, largely due to US pressure and the president George W.Bush, with whom Blair had a close relationship with. He resigned after serving as the Labour Foreign Secretary from 1997-2001. Following his resignation, Cook delivered a powerful speech in the Commons and composed a frank letter of resignation in which he argued that Britain should only act as part of an international unilateral force.

CMR Case Study - 1990 Geoffery Howe, Deputy PM under Margaret Thatcher:

In 1990 Margaret Thatcher delivered a famous assault  on European federalism, in her ‘No,no,no’ speech.Just two days after pro-EU Geoffrey Howe resigned from the Thatcher government; Howe explained he could no longer serve under an increasingly Eurosceptic Prime Minister. Howe's resignation prompted a …

leadership challenge to her former Cabinet minister Micheal Helstein. Although Thatcher won the first round of the leadership challenge, her authority was fatally undermined, and she resigned two weeks after Howe's speech.

Individual ministerial responsibility is every bit as important as collective responsibility. It is the principle that an individual cabinet minister should resign for …

 personal or political misconduct, or for a failure by themselves or the department they are in charge of.  This single resignation does not and should not affect the rest of the Cabinet.

There is a level of uncertainty about what constitutes individual responsibility though.  Whilst ‘personal conduct’ issues are more clear cut, decisions around what ministers are responsible or not for in their government departments is a more tricky issue. For example …

in 2014 a 24 year old junior civil servant in the Cabinet Office was sacked because of offensive edits to the Wikipedia page over the Hillsborough football stadium disaster. Although a failure within a ministerial department, the Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude was not expected to resign, since he couldn’t reasonably be seen as responsible for this action by an individual.

Should a department fail in terms of major policy, the minister may be expected to resign. Lord Carrington resigned as …

Foreign Secretary in 1982 after the Argentine invasion of the Falklands.  Whilst he was not seen as personally responsible, Carrington took responsibility for the failure of his department in the run up to the invasion. 

Should a minister deliberately or inadvertently mislead Parliament over a department policy, they would be expected to …

resign - as Home Secretary Amber Rudd did in 2018 over the Windrush Scandal (having been badly briefed by officials in her department).

There has also been clarification in recent times regarding the difference between the introduction and the management of government policy. 

• Individual ministerial responsibility comes into play when a policy has been introduced and in terms of how it can be assessed in terms of its broader impact. 

• The day-to-day operation of managing this policy, however, is up to civil servants within a specific government department, and ministers cannot be expected to know or be held accountable for a single failure of an individual when implementing policy.

It isn’t always easy to say when ministers should resign or be sacked, as the performance of their departments is not always something they know about and can realistically change. There are four circumstances that we can broadly categorise into reasons why individual responsibility applies when ministers resign:

1. taking responsibility for the department

2. policy or personal failure

3. personal misconduct

4. political pressure

1. Taking responsibility for the department

There are some departmental mistakes which Cabinet ministers must sometimes take individual responsibility for. This, however, is rarer than civil servants being the individuals to suffer as a result of errors within the department …

• Sir Thomas Dugdale is the most relevant example of this. He was made to resign in 1954 because of concerns surrounding a 700-acre space of privately owned land in Dorset. This land had been purchased by the government to use as a bombing range before the Second World War, and it had promised to give the land back to its owner. However, the Ministry of Agriculture, whose minister was Dugdale, kept the land and let it out to someone else. Dugdale took the brunt of criticism and was forced to resign. This clearly shows that ministers may be forced to resign under individual responsibility.

2. Policy or Personal performance failure

A second reason is if there is a significant department policy failure. Again, this is not a certainty and there is no guarantee that it will be the minister who takes the fall as a result of the failure of a policy to be implemented. 

• Liz Truss resigned after just 6 weeks as PM, following her disastrous ‘mini-budget’.  She previously had sacked the Chancellor who delivered it - Kwasi Kwarteng - but as she had co-wrote it with him, she ultimately was forced to (sort of) take responsibility.

• An example of a personal performance failure individual is Estelle Morris, who resigned from her position as Education and Skills Minister in 2002 after a scandal over A-level marking.  Morris’ herself said she was not up to running a whole department, and was better as a junior minister instead.

3. Personal Misconduct:

Personal misconduct is a more expected reason why ministers would be held individually responsible and suffer the consequences separately from their Cabinet. Cabinet ministers are expected to live their personal lives and careers in a professional, honest and morally good manner. If this ministerial conduct is compromised, they run the risk of being forced to resign. Examples of this are numerous.

• Michael Fallon resigned in 2017 following allegations of past sexual harassment. 

• Suella Braverman resigned as Home Secretary in 2022 for breaching the Ministerial Code by sharing an official document from her personal email address with a colleague in Parliament - although she was controversially almost immediately reappointed under new PM Rishi Sunak.

4. Political Pressure

The final reason why a minister may be forced to take individual responsibility is that there may be significant political pressure to which the government has to respond. There is no specific policy to blame, and it is not a result of ministers breaking from the requirements of their personal and professional lives. This could involve sustained pressure from the media or Parliament …

• David Cameron was forced to resign as PM following the 2016 EU Referendum, not due to department responsibility, not due to the failure of the policy he created, not because of his own misconduct, but because of the pressure to resign from the public and media due to the issue of legitimacy - how could a PM who backed Remain, lead a post-referendum policy of Leave.

When Individuality Responsibility Fails - The Ministers Who Won’t Resign… There has been an increasing trend seemingly in the last decade, for Ministers to be less willing to resign over individual or department failing however.  Neither Theresa May or Amber Rudd as Home Secretaries resigned over the Windrush Scandal (Rudd resigning instead because she’d inadvertently given false information to Parliament, not due to the scandal itself).

Gavin Williamson is a good if depressing example. In 2019 he was asked to resign as Defence Secretary over his alleged leaking of national security information around the Chinese communications company Huawei.  He refused - so Theresa May sacked him, saying she no longer had faith in his honesty!  The matter remains unresolved, although MoD officials off the record have blamed Williamson and accused him of putting British intelligence agents' lives at risk. Having backed Boris Johnson as PM in 2019, Williamson was appointed Education Secretary despite the MoD fiasco.  Here he presided over the A level grading fiasco of 2020.  In the aftermath of this …

scandal the head of the exams regular Ofqual, Sally Colliert resigned, as did Jonathan Slater the leading civil servant in the Department for Education.  Somewhat remarkably Williamson did not - and was accused of ‘scapegoating’ the civil servants.  The days of Sir Thomas Dugdale and Lord Carrington seem long ago. (Williamson was eventually removed by PM Boris Johnson in 2021, but remarkably made another return to Cabinet under Sunak, before finally ‘choosing’ to resign to ‘clear his name’, after multiple accusations of bullying emerged.  You may be disappointed to learn he was reelected as an MP in 2024, as 2022 boundary changes have given him one of safest seats in the country).

IMR Case Studies - 2022-23 Suella Braveman, Home Secretary under Sunak:

In 2022, Home Secretary Suella Braveman breached the ministerial code by sending official documents from her personal email. She forwarded at least 127 documents to her private email accounts which was seen as a security breach …

She ignored calls to resign but was eventually sacked by Rishi Sunak in a Cabinet reshuffle on October 19th. Her sacking followed widespread criticism that she had undermined public trust and attacked civil servants and the police. She was reappointed six days later in the same position.

IMR Case Studies - 2021 Matt Hancock, Health Secretary under Johnson:

Hancock kissed a colleague, Gina Coladangelo. Moral question (cheating on wife) and ethical question (Coladangelo was a longstanding friend who Hancock had given a taxpayer funded job in the health department). Whilst establishing these covid regulations, he disregarded government's rules on social distancing.

He quickly resigned as Health Secretary (though he was an MP until May 30 2024). Public Outrage deepened when he later appeared on reality TV - further damaging trust in politicians. He did this as an attempt to build his wealth and career outside of politics. 

IMR Case Studies - 2020 Priti Patel, Home Secretary under Johnson:

She was found by an internal investigation to have engaged in the bullying of civil servants in her department, and thus breach ministerial code - Johnson decided to reject the findings of the report. She did not resign and Boris Johnson Overruled the report and kept her in post.

Standards adviser Sir Alex Allen resigned instead due to the Prime minister publicly reaching a different conclusion from him, highlighting weakened accountability.

IMR Case Studies - 2017 Priti Patel, International Development Secretary under May:

She had 14 unofficial meetings with Israeli ministers, lobbyists and business people on a private holiday to Israel. She was forced to quit the cabinet in 2017. However, was back in the cabinet and reappointed when Johnson became PM. In addition, she was named one of the top 10 MPs to put pressure on the Commons Privileges Committee investigation into Boris Johnson.

She then made false claims in an interview with the Guardian that the then foreign secretary Boris Johnson knew about them and that the foreign office official was deliberately undermining her. Despite the scandal she later retired to Cabinet as Home Secretary under Boris Johnson. 

IMR Case Studies - 2017 Damian Green, Cabinet Office Minister under May:

Damian Green was found lying about pornagraphic content to his colleagues, he also was found sending suggestive messages and touching the knee of the young Tory activist Kate Maltby. These actions broke the honesty and probity principles of the ministerial code. It was later discovered that this was a known pattern of Green’s behaviour towards women.

He didn’t resign and was instead dismissed from the Cabinet for breaching honesty and integrity rules. The case embarrassed May as it emerged she had been long aware of his behaviour. 8 months later, he was promoted to first secretary of state

IMR Case Studies - 2014 Maria Miller, Culture Secretary under Cameron:

Maria Miller was forced to step down after falsely claiming expenses. The Independent parliamentary Commissioner for Standards recommended Miller repay £45,000 in over-claimed expenses. However, the Commons Standards Committee, which has the final say, cleared of funding a home for her parents at taxpayers' expense, but was told to repay £5,800 in over-claimed mortgage interest payments. She was also told to apologise to the Commons which she did but was derided for lasting 31 seconds 

She stepped down as Culture Secretary following public and parliamentary backlash in 2014.  The Commons Standards Committee’s decision to cut Miller’s repayments by nearly £40,000, and their ignoring of the Commissioner’s report’s findings, sparked a backlash across the political spectrum and calls for changes in how complaints against MPs were investigated.

IMR Case Studies - 2012 Andrew Mitchell, Chief Whip under Cameron:

Mitchell allegedly called a police officer a “pleb” after an argument at Downing Street’s gates. He resigned after weeks of damaging headlines and …

political pressure from the media. He later lost a libel case confirming he had used the insult but was reelected as an MP in 2024.

IMR Case Studies - 2012 Chris Huhne (Lib Dem) Energy Secretary under Cameron’s Coalition government:

Huhne was accused of persuading his wife to take his speeding points in 2003. He resigned to …

“clear his name” but later pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. Both he and his ex-wife were imprisoned, ending his political career.

IMR Case Studies - 2011 Theresa May, Home Secretary under Cameron:

In 2011, Theresa May (Home Secretary at the time) blamed the relaxation of checks on European travellers coming into the UK on the head of the Border Control Agency (Brodie Clark). She said he had …

done this action and that it was unauthorised. Clark was forced to resign but May refused to even consider it. May emerged politically unscathed while Clark was forced to resign with Clark saying that May had used him as a scapegoat for her own political advantage.

IMR Case Studies - 2009 Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary under Brown:

acqui Smith's husband who worked for her as a constituency secretary had put the porn films he paid to watch, onto her official expenses. This was at the height of the Parliamentary Expenses Scandal, where she already had a substantial offense about her claims for over £100,000 in her London ‘second home’ expenses. Jacqui Smith claimed …

‘I was the one who did the wrong thing. For claiming it. For not going through the expense form closely enough.’ She resigned after this. Sir Alistair Graham, former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, was critical of her actions, stating that naming her sister's spare room as her main home was ‘near fraudulent’. She lost her seat in 2010, then was given peerage, and starmer appointed her a minister in the education department in 2024

Conventions - or unwritten rules which people are expected to stick to - are an important element in the British constitutional and political process. Conventions however …

 require ‘buy in’ from the ‘political class’ in order to remain effective. Normally, such ‘buy in’ is the norm. 

The Rise Of Anti-Politics

• But there can be exceptions, especially in recent times with the rise of so-called ‘anti-politics.’

• ‘Anti-politics’ is seen as a disconnect between parts of the public and politicians (and other elites).  Here the public distrust the political class and elites and feel they act out of self-interest, and are not on the side of ‘the ordinary man’.

• The public therefore can reject the ‘political class & elites’ guidance as to how to act politically, and instead go for a more radical, and often ‘populist’ alternative.

Brexit Example

The Brexit Referendum in 2016 is the key UK example - most of the political, business, media & academic elite supported Remain, but the public backed Leave.  A second area is with the rise of Reform UK (formerly UKIP & the Brexit Party) which got 4 million votes (14%) in the 2024 General Election) and returned 5 MPs. They have …

campaigned especially on the issue of immigration - an area where many people feel the mainstream parties have failed to respond to public concerns.

Donald Trump Example (i)

Internationally the election of Donald Trump in 2017 as American President is seen as another example of ‘anti-politics’.  Trump effectively ‘played by his own rules’, conducting most of his campaign via social media, providing little or no evidence to support his claims, refusing to respond to media questioning he didn’t like, and ignoring the normal way Presidents are expected to behave.  After he lost in 2020 he was complicit in …

the ‘Capital Riots’ of 2021 - when his refusal to accept he’d lost the election & claims the vote was rigged (never providing any evidence) - led his supporters to occupy the US Congress to try and get the result overturned.  According to the Senate committee who investigated this, Trump "lied to the American people, ignored all evidence refuting his false fraud claims, pressured state and federal officials to throw out election results favoring his challenger, encouraged a violent mob to storm the Capitol and even signaled support for the execution of his own vice president."

Donald Trump Example (ii)

Nevertheless, he was picked as the Republican candidate again in 2024, despite by then being found guilty in court of producing false accounts to cover up paying hush money to a former porn star he’d allegedly slept with.  (Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene then compared Trump to another convicted felon - Jesus Christ). Bizarrely …

none of this behaviour - which would have destroyed the careers of any previous politician - seemed to much affect his popularity.  He remained popular with female voters for example, even after he was caught bragging about how he as a rich and powerful man, could get away with sexual assault. 

Boris Johnson Example

• Whilst Boris Johnson (PM 2019-22) cannot compare to Trump, he was seen by some as dangerous because of the way he was accused of ignoring UK political conventions, and acting immorally.  

• The pressure group Unlock Democracy highlighted 10 moments when Johnson ‘almost broke democracy’.  These included his illegal proroguing of Parliament in 2019, allowing Priti Patel to keep her job as Home Secretary after she’d been found guilty of bullying the civil servants working for her in 2021, trying to change Parliamentary rules to protect the corrupt MP Owen Paterson in 2021, lying to Parliament repeatedly, changing the Ministerial Code to suit himself, when under …

• investigation for Partygate, the cronyism of his resignation honours, and when his first two ‘ethics of government advisors’ resigned in protest, and so he left the position unfilled from then on.

 Unlock Democracy argues that this proves the UK public are not protected from such ‘maverick’ politicians - and therefore we need a codified and fully-written constitution, arguing “Johnson knew that our unwritten constitution is full of holes and grey areas. That’s why he felt so emboldened to act as he did.  A written constitution would make it harder than ever for a rogue Prime Minister to undermine our democracy, and much easier to hold them accountable if they try”. (Note - the UK constitution is not unwritten).