Prime Minister and the Executive

What is the executive?

Also known as the government is formed of the prime minister, members of the cabinet and junior ministers

What is the prime minister?

• PM is head of the executive and holds the final decision making power

• PM leads the executive by determining government policy and making national decisions

What the cabinet?

• Cabinet is formed of the PM and ministers appointed by the PM

• Ministers in the cabinet lead the government departments and consult the PM on formulating policy

• cabinet meets weekly

  • 2022 cabinet included 22 ministers (Suella Braveman the Secretary of State for the home department, James Cleverly the secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs

  • 2024 cabinet includes 26 ministers (Angela Rayner deputy PM and Secretary of State for housing, communities and local government, Rachel Reeves first female chancellor of the exchequer)

What are Junior Ministers?

• appointed by the PM and have responsibilities within specific government departments

• specific roles under cabinet ministers who are the heads of government departments

What is a government department?

• responsibilities of areas of policy

• run by secretary of state and included ministers and civil servants

  • civil servants are permanent staff within the government who support the current government In carrying out policy

What are the roles of the Executive?

• proposes legislation:

  • This includes policies in election manifesto, government departments develop legislation proposals which are called bills and are outlined in the kings speech

• Budget:

  • around March or April each year a budget is proposed by the executive this outlines changes to taxation and the state of the nations economy following the chancellors speech there will be a debate

  • 2017 budget developed by chancellor Phillip Hammond outlined increasing national living wage from £7.50 to £7.83

• Policy decisions:

  • Makes policy decisions which determine how the country is run

What are the powers of the executive? (Royal Prerogative)

Royal Prerogative:

• the monarchs powers which the PM exercises

• Prerogative powers regarding the judicial system includes legal pardons and reducing sentences

• The executive has prerogative powers to deploy the army, grant honours and use prerogative emergency powers to act decisively during emergencies

What are the powers of the executive? (initiating legislation)

• The executive has the power the enact any policy outlined in the election manifesto

What is individual ministerial responsibility?

The principle by which ministers are held to account and sates that ministers must be competent and are expected to resign if they are not

• Ministers are responsible for the performance of their department and are expected to resign if their department fails majorly

• Ministers must take personal responsibility if they do not succeed

  • Examples: Amber Rudd previous home secretary resigned in 2018 after she misled the home affairs select committee on targets for deporting illegal immigrants, Suella Braveman resigned in 2022 for sending official documents from her personal email

What are advantages of individual ministerial responsibility?

• A strong standard of behaviour is maintained by government officials

• The government is held accountable for their behaviour towards the public

  • Michael Fallon secretary of defence resigned in 2017 after claims of sexual misconduct

What are disadvantages of individual ministerial responsibility?

• Fails when ministers choose not to resign and blame others for their departments failings

  • In 2011 the home secretary Theresa May did not resign over weakened border checks which allowed foreign criminals terror suspects into the UK. Instead she blamed Brodie Clark the head of UK border defence

What is collective ministerial responsibility?

Cabinet members must publicly support the decisions made by the cabinet

• If they fail to do this they must resign

  • In 2018 Johnson resigned as foreign secretary as he disagreed with the governments ‘chequers deal’ for leaving the EU

What are advantages of collective ministerial responsibility?

• Ensures the governments appears united and that ministers have the support of the government

• Ensures a strong government as the government has a clear official position on policies

  • In 2013 the LibDem supported the conservatives ministers in opposing the mansion tax which they had previously supported which showed a strong coalition government

What are disadvantages of collective ministerial responsibility?

• Ministers must support policies even if they do not agree with them which means policies can be forced upon them by the PM

  • Ministers of Blairs government were not consulted regarding the Iraq invasion in 2003 until 3 days before the invasion and some ministers claim they were forced to agree to the war

what is relaxing collective responsibility?

• When the PM wants to keep a politician but knows they will not agree to a particular policy they may relax collective ministerial responsibility

  • David Cameron did this during the EU referendum giving ministers the choice of leave or remain

what is the role of the PM?

Government head:

• Responsible for the work of departments and creates new departments, government roles, chairs and decides who is on the cabinet and is the head of the civil service

• Responsible for governments policy, agenda and decides what policies are priority

Party head:

• Elected by party members and is the party leader

Decision maker:

• Makes decisions regarding the UKs national security and responds to national and international crises which may affect the UK - 2017 attempted terrorist attack on train

International leadership

• decides whether or not to deploy British armed forces

Parliament role

• Leads parliament as the leader of the HoC

Chief communicator

• communicates with the public on the media

What are the powers of the PM? (patronage)

Appoint and dismiss

• PM uses powers of patronage to appoint cabinet ministers

  • PMs can dismiss those who rival them or appoint those who rival them to make them support the government

• This can be called a reshuffle after an election

Strengths

• Allows the PM to appoint ministers who have the same views as them

• Gives the PM some control over ministers and MPs

What are the powers of the PM? (Parliament)

• PM uses parties majority to make sure their policies become law

• Appoint government chief whip, HoC leader and HoL leader

What are the powers of the PM? (Cabinet)

• Determines the agenda for cabinet meetings and priorities policies they favour

What are the powers of the PM? (Media influence)

• PMs with strong press offices will be able to successfully influence the media

  • Tony Blair - The sun

  • Tony Blair - Alistair Campbell

What are the powers of the PM? (Foreign policy)

• PM can use royal prerogative to declare war overseas and deploy British armed forces

• Power to sign the UK up to foreign treaties

What are the powers of the PM? (Civil service)

• reforms and appointments of the civil service are done by the PM

  • Ensures all civil servants remain loyal

What are limits to the PMs powers? (cabinet)

• The cabinet is needed in order to approve the PMs policy decisions

  • In theory the PM is ‘First among equals’ meaning they have equal say

  • The cabinet is an important check and balance on the PMs powers

What are limits to the PMs powers? (Electorate)

• Loss of support from the electorate will end the PMs time In power

What are limits to the PMs powers? (Parliament)

• Parliament limits the power of the PM through votes and scrutiny and holds the PM to account in PMQ weekly in the HoC \

• A vote of no confidence by parliament removes the PM from power

What are limits to the PMs powers? (Political party)

• PM must maintain the support of the party in order to stay in power

  • A PM without the support of their party has a weaker position and may be challenged by their cabinet

  • In 1990 Margaret Thatcher resigned as PM after she was challenged to stand down by members of her own party

What are limits to the PMs powers? (Media)

• Communicates with the public and influences their opinion which might pressure the PM about their decisions

What is the role of the cabinet?

Policy maker

• The cabinet makes final decisions regarding and they must make an agreement

• Needed to legitimise and ratify the PM and gov policies

Coordinates government works

• Coordinates governments programme of legislation and priorities when to introduce legislation into parliament and the cabinet organises the weekly agenda

Limits PMs power

• If PM loses the support of the cabinet they will lose their authority

Emergencies

• Cabinet deals with emergencies by making quick decisions to address crises

  • E.g. cabinet office briefing room meeting (COBR) was called following the suspected Russian poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury