Evaluate The View That Political Loyalty Is The Most Important Factor Governing The Prime Minister’s Selection Of Ministers.

Introduction

Paragraph Focus

• Para 1 = Ideological Balance

• Para 2 = Competence and Experience

• Para 3 = Representation

Para 1 = Weaker Argument - Not the Most Important

• Prime Ministers have to balance selecting political allies with balancing different factions and maintaining support from across the part

• to make sure their party stays united, Prime Ministers select an ideologically balanced cabinet which represents different factions of the party

• Theresa May, for example, appointed a cabinet with a balance between Brexiteers (including Boris Johnson and David Davis) and Remainers (including Phillip Hammond and Jeremy Hunt).

• Keeping important members of the party who may oppose you in the cabinet is effective as they have to sign up to collective responsibility and are therefore unable to publicly challenge the government.

Para 1 = Stronger Argument - Most Important

• Prime Ministers seek to reward the loyalty of key allies and bring in ministers they know will support government policy in public.

• Loyalty was a major factor in Liz Truss' selection of her cabinet, almost all of whom had supported her in her leadership campaign.

• Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was a key political ally who was made Chancellor despite having very limited experience in government.

• The Prime Minister must be confident that ministers won't destabilise or embarrass the government by going off message or questioning its policies.

• In his 2020 cabinet reshuffle, for example, Boris Johnson sacked Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith as he had spoken out against a no deal Brexit.

Para 2 = Weaker Argument - Not the Most Important

• Prime Ministers consider individual competence and experience when selecting ministers

• Prime Ministers have to be confident that their minister's have the experience and specialist knowledge to run their department effectively.

• For example, Jeremy Hunt being brought in as Chancellor by both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak
  Having served in the cabinet for 9 years since 2010.

Para 2 = Stronger Argument - Most Important

• it can be argued that loyalty and political alignment is a more important factor, as recent Prime Ministers have sometimes selected ministers who have limited experience, yet belong to the same wing of the party.

• Liz Truss, for example, appointed Kwasi Kwarteng and James Cleverly to important roles, both of whom had limited experience in government.

• this shows that Prime ministers will prioritise political loyalty over competence in order to ensure that ministers will implement policy in line with their ideology and vote with them concerning legislation

Para 3 = Weaker Argument - Not the Most Important

• Especially in recent years, Prime Ministers have found it important to ensure their cabinets are somewhat representative of the population in terms of gender and ethnicity in particular.

• for example, 11/21 members of Starmer's first cabinet are women including the first female Chancellor, and 3 members are from an ethnic minority background

• this shows that Prime ministers will prioritise diversity to better understand different walks of life when considering policy

• this allows the electorate to feel more represented as they have a more diverse and inclusive cabinet

Para 3 = Stronger Argument - Most Important

• There are clearly limits to how much importance Prime Ministers place on diversity when selecting their ministers, particularly in relation to gender.

• Politics, parliament and the government continues to be largely dominated by white men.