Examples politics Unit 2

example of how urgent questions can be effective at holding the government to account

Jan 2026- Shadow sec for Housing, Communities and Local gov James Cleverly tabled urgent Q demanding why Labour govt had cancelled some upcoming local council elections May 2026

Minister Florence Eshalomi (Lab MP) called decision disappointing & parliamentary pressure meant Labour govt forced to u-turn and hold all local council elections

Worst parliamentary defeat in modern political history (Jan 2019)

May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement- lost 432-202 with 118 Tories voting against

May suffered 33 defeats in the Commons

Parliament is not representative of the electorate

Sunaks 1st cabinet- 61% had attended private schools and 45% went to Oxbridge

Whip system limits the independence of MPs

July 2025- Labour suspended 4 MPs over voting against its Welfare reform bill

Racheal Maskell- complained she was elected to speak up for her constituents and punished for doing so

Flexible nature of UK constitution and parliament

W/ Large parliamentary majority- govt can pass emergency legislation

Coronavirus Act 2020, April 2025- Govt passed emergency legislation nationalising British steel- committee of the whole house

Govt can control parliamentary timetable and rush through legislation

2026 Medical Training Act passed in just one sitting as part of emergency timetable, 0 amendments but could affect thousands of doctors, skipped report stage

Illegal Migration Act spent 2 days in Committee of the whole house

Rebellions can force gov to back down

July 2025- rebellion of 126 Labour MPs led to concessions on flagship welfare bill

even after concessions, 47 Labour MPs voted against the bill

Whipping system is extremely effective

2019-2024 gov, vast majority of Mps rebelled against party lines less than 2% of the time, and just 8 MPs rebelling more than 5% of the time

Conservative opposition day motion to refer Starmer to Privileges committee over misleading parliament over Mandelson scandal- Lab MPs were whipped to vote against and motion defeated 335-223- only 15 Labour MPs defied the whip

Increased use of urgent questions

Increased under Speaker Bercow and Hoyle

Hoyle- average 0.6 UQs per day

2024-26- 178 UQs granted vs 29 1997/8

Debate suggested by BBBC which chooses debate 35 days in parliamentary session

Dec 2025- MPs held debate on intro of Digital ID cards following e-petition titled ‘Do not introduce digital ID cards’ -3mill sigs

following sustained pressure from backbenchers- gov abandoned plans to make ID mandatory in 2026- will be intro optionally in 2029

UQs do not increase influence of backbenchers

Shadow defence sec James Cartlidge challenged the gov ‘defence readiness’ policy and despite scrutiny detailed ‘serious escalation’ by Russian forces - no immediate policy change or clarity on greater funding and gov reiterated line

Decline of scrutiny in the commons

2024- 60% of the time in HoL spent scrutinising policy whilst MPs spent just 24% of their time in the chamber according to research by the Bennett institute

Legislative influence of public bill committees

• Railways Bill entered Committee Stage Jan 2026 and underwent 14 sittings of detailed scrutiny

• experts from ASLEF rail union submitted evidence and bbs able to scrutinise concentration of power within the new rail governance framework and propose amendments to clarify oversight mechanisms

PMBs are effective

1967 abortion act

Terminally Ill adults (end of life) bill proposed by Kim Leadbeater- introduced 2024 as she secured 1st place in PMB ballot. supported by majority of Mps in 3rd reading 2025 and generated national debate

PMBs are not effective

Assisted Dying Bill ultimately ran out of time and will not be carried over into next parliamentary session as it is PMB not a government bill

2023-4 session 178 PMBs proposed and only 8 received royal assent

Professionalism of Lords

had been discussing assisted dying bill since 2014- Falconers bill

Doreen lawrence and Baroness Brown of Cambridge

When has parliament act 1949 been triggered

Blair gov- passing Hunting act 2004, Sexual offences Act 2000- equalize age of consent for homosexual couples

Starmer dominance in commons

Has not yet been defeated in commons but 208 times in Lords

Blair only defeated 4 times in Commons but 353 times in Lords

Elimination of hereditary peerages in Lords

House of Lords (Hereditary peers) Act 2026- eliminates remaining hereditary peerage reinforcing professionalization of Lords- Life peers

Reforms are not always genuinely transformative

79% of the public supported limiting PMs authority to appoint peers and 71% supported restricting the size of the lords to no bigger than the commons

Decline in constitutional standards and integrity

Olly Robbins- senior civil servant at the foreign office told MPs no10 took a ‘dismissive approach’ to the vetting process and he was under ‘constant pressure’ to approve Mandelson’s clearance as political priority for Starmer

Declining authority of Starmer

forced to u-turn on digital ID, welfare reform, Yougov- currently disliked by 61% of the public

Importance of big beasts in parliament

despite Starmers unpopularity- he has maintained cabinet support for a long time

Wes Streeting resigned from cabinet and called on Starmer to set out a timetable for resignation and Mahmood reportedly pushed strongly for Starmer to do same w/in cabinet

BUT- Starmer has not had to contend w/ Johnson like figure constantly undermining from within and outside of parliament like Theresa May - suggested if Burnham was already in parliament Starmer would have been challenged a long time ago

PM power of patronage to control cabinet

Starmer filled cabinet with long standing allies who had served in shadow cabinet and supportive of leadership

Rachel Reeves as chancellor and Pat McFadden as sec DWP- who publicly supported gov welfare bill despite public and political controversy

Sacking ministers- ideological adherence in cabinet

July 2019- Johnson sacked over half of May’s cabinet- required all ministers to accept possibility of no-deal Brexit

Sep 2019- removed conservative whip from 21 MPs incl. senior figures e.g Ken clarke and Philip Hammond after voted against gov to block no-deal brexit

Big Beasts- can limit PM control over cabinet

• Chancellor Brown under Blair- had to concede control over number of policy areas, e.g Brown effectively denied Blair his wish to join European Single Currency by devising 5 economic tests that would first have to be passed and insisting treasury would determine when they had been met

• Wes Streeting’s resignation as Big Beast representing right wing of Labour party has significantly weakened Starmers authority and fuelled calls for him to resign

Example of a PM bypassing extensive discussion in the cabinet

BJ- number of Cabinet committees increased from 6 under May to 20 under Johnson, with Johnson personally chairing 11 most influential committees responsible for policy on Brexit and covid pandemic

Truss developed 2022 mini-budget largely through bi-lateral meetings with Kwasi Kwarteng and a small group of advisers e.g Ruth Porter from IEA who supported Truss economic agenda

Use of SPADs- undermining the cabinet

• 2010 60 SPADs in gov by July 2025- 130 SPADs under Starmer- 42 working directly within no10

• 2026- Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney was a central dominant figure in Starmers gov - during tenure McSweeney was widely regarded as most powerful individual in the administration

PM reliance on cabinet to deliver policy

Boris Johnson relied heavily on members of ‘Quad’- Gov,Sunak and Hancock to shape key policies during Covid- played major role in gov response to pandemic and developing initiatives e.g ‘Eat out to help out’- developed by Sunak as chancellor

Example of PM delegating authority to cabinet member

Starmer has delegated significant autonomy over economic policy and gov messaging to Reeves

Reeves introduced £40bn tax rise 2024 Budget and est. strict fiscal rules, designed to ensure gov debt falls as a share of GDP 2029/30

PM cannot bypass cabinet if unpopular

July 2018- May attempted to secure ‘full cabinet backing’ at Chequers for a compromise Brexit deal, however key ministers incl. David Davis and BJ resigned shortly after arguing it was not Brexit deal they had been promised

hardline brexiteers in May cabinet unable to exert considerable influence- forced May into harder Brexit deal

Examples of Micheal Foley’s theory of spatial leadership

Due to high popularity of Blair at start of premiership able to determine a lot of gov policy himself e.g in health and education, where there was a lot of centralised control, through strategy and delivery units no10

BJ able to dominate cabinet in initial years after claiming strong personal mandate to deliver Brexit (‘get brexit done’) and Levelling up- used this to drive gov policy and ministers supporting brexit strategy and leadership early on in covid when still popular with public

Example of loss of popularity leading to loss of cabinet control

July 2022- BJ forced to resign after more than 50 ministers resigned within 48 hours and he was unable to form functioning govt- followed a tory party vote of confidence in June in which 41% of MPs voted against him- scale of opposition meant BJ could not longer maintain cabinet/gov

Truss forced from office Oct 2022 when more than 100 Conservative MPs submitted letters of no confidence, CMR had broken down at 2022 party conference - cabinet members openly disagreed on policies e.g benefit cuts and 45p tax rate turn

PM appoint ministers politically loyal to them to consolidate authority

2020 BJ cabinet reshuffle- Geoffrey Cox was removed as Attorney General after disagreeing with Johnson’s approach to 2019 prorogation of UK parliament

Johnson also fired Julian Smith as NI Sec despite Smith being widely credited with helping to restore NI assembly, Smith had opposed the possibility of no-deal Brexit- replaced with Johnson ally Brandon Lewis

Large majority means PM can disregard ideological balance in their cabinet

Starmers 1st cabinet- no members of left wing of labour party

removed soft left figures e.g Lisa Nandy and Louise Hague, replacing them with MPs on right of party who had served as aides under Blair e.g Pat McFadden, Liz Kendall and Peter Kyle

BUT- has backfired e.g reasoned amendment to welfare cuts, Burnham as potential leadership challenge as seen as more Left wing

Ideological balance is important factor governing selection of ministers

May appointed Cabinet balancing Brexiteers and remainers following 2016 referendum e.g BJ and David David, and prominent remain supporters such as Philip Hammond and Jeremy Hunt

May kept Johnson in cabinet despite him frequently criticising gov policy- removing prominent Brexiteer could have led to opposition from pro-Leave faction and increased likelihood of internal rebellion

Competence and experience is important in PM selection of ministers

Sep 2025 cabinet reshuffle- Starmer promoted Shabana Mahmood to the position of Home Sec- this was clearly influenced by her competence in gov, reflecting her success as Justice Secretary where she had dealt with issues such as prison overcrowding

Additionally, businessman James Timpson appointed as Prisons Minister after being made life peer- extensive through former company Timpson group

Political alignment overrides value of experience in selection of cabinet ministers

Truss appointed Kwarteng as Chancellor in 2022 despite him having less than 2 years of cabinet experience, primarily due to his strong support during her leadership campaign and shared economic views as part of Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs

Truss cabinet was least experienced in modern british political history- average secretary of state had 17 months of senior ministerial experience

& Sunak prioritised political loyalty as he removed important members of Truss cabinet e.g Dominic Raab and Micheal Gove (Levelling up secretary) returned after being previously dismissed by Truss

Representation and diversity is important in selection of cabinet members

Starmer’s 2024 cabinet- 11/21 were female- his cabinet had most women in key offices of state ever - female chancellor, foreign and home sec

2025 September- all ministers state educated compared to Sunaks cabinet- 60% privately educated, 45% went to Oxbridge and at one point only 23% of cabinet ministers were female