PRIME MINISTER AND EXECUTIVE CONTENT

Executive

Is the government - sits within the legislature

How does the executive govern the nation

• introduces proposals for legislation to parliament based on their manifesto

• Introduces a budget proposing how the government will raise revenue. Presented in autumn and is written by the chancellor and PM

• May introduce secondary or delegated legislation - already existing legislation which the government can modify without the need to introduce new legislation

Powers of the PM

• exercises the ROYAL PEROGATIVE (executive power of the monarchy eg command of armed forces). These powers are transferred to the PM as the UK is a constitutional monarchy

• Determines membership of the government, including cabinet

• Makes senior appointments to civil service and judiciary

• Recommends most appointments of life peers to HoL

• Negotiates foreign treaties

• Directs military forces

• Decides whether to activate UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent

Role of government departments

• manage particular area of government and develop policy

• Cabinet members are generally in charge of departments ( eg Treasury, home office, transport)

Role of the civil service

• relied on by government departments for support

  • Defined by the principles of neutrality, anonymity, and permanence, meaning civil servants should provide impartial advice, to any governemnt, on policy development and implementation

  • Therefore not expected to be held accountable for the actions of a department

Cabinet

• consists of 20-25 senior government ministers who head departments of state

• Bounded by principle of collective ministerial responsibility

Roles of cabinet

• Provides key forum in which government policy is legitimised (maintains government unity)

• Determine key policy issues

• Decide how government will determine business

How is the cabinet chosen

• party unity is vital so pm may choose to balance their cabinet to avoid alienating certain parts of their party

  • Eg Theresa mays cabinet: amber rudd remain voter and Boris Johnson leave voter

  • Tony Blair’s deputy PM john Prescott was from the working class-left of the Labour Party, which reassured the public that new labour had not entirely abandoned its socialist ideology

  • Contrast: Boris Johnson only appointed cabinet members who shared his political ideology

• Coalitions restrict the pms right to appoint

  • In 2010, Cameron had to appoint nick clegg as deputy PM and give Lib Dem’s 5 out of the 22 seats in cabinet as part of the coalition agreement

Cabinet government

• a type of government in which the cabinet plays a key role in the development of policy

• It provides a direct contrast to the prime-ministerial model of government

Prime ministerial government

• a model of government in which the prime minister is dominant and the cabinet is relegated to a subordinate decision making role

How significant is the cabinet?

• according to Walter bagehot, the cabinet is the “most powerful body in the state”, and the prime minister is first among equals

• UK has a system mainly of prime-ministerial government rather than cabinet government

PM and their cabinet

• every PM will approach cabinet differently depending on character and political circumstances

• PMs who value debate and want to achieve consensus are more likely to utilise cabinet carefully

• PMs with small parliamentary majorities and ideologically divided parties need to consult cabinet to maintain party unity

Arguments the cabinet plays a central role in government

• during political crisis the PM needs to discuss options open to them

  • Boris Johnson in December 2021 consulted his cabinet on the spread of the omicron variant of Covid

  • April 2018 Theresa may called an urgent meeting to discuss a military response to the Syrian governments presumed use of chemical weapons

  • Russia invading Ukraine 2022 Johnson also called an emergency cabinet meeting

• PM depends on cabinet support to remain in power

  • After sacking her chancellor, kwasi kwarteng, liz truss was exposed to the shock resignation of her Home Secretary Suella braverman, and announced her resignation as PM the next day (20 October 2022)

Arguments the cabinet does not play a significant role in government

• the UK has a more prime ministerial model of government with strong PMs where the cabinet only reviews already exiting policies elsewhere

  • Theresa may 2017 called a snap election without consulting her cabinet, and her manifesto was overseen with no cabinet involvement

• Growing influence of political advisors - cabinet meets once a week whereas political advisors have constant access to the PM

Arguments the PM is the dominant force in UK politics

• policy unit and cabinet office report directly to the PM

• Determines main policy objectives of government (eg Boris Johnson and Brexit, increased defence spending, levelling up)

• Cabinet selected by PM, and their careers are heavily influenced by actions of the PM, giving the PM significant patronage power

• Media spotlight is focused on the PM eg Boris Johnson

• Decides crucial intelligence and military issues, and national crises such as Covid

Arguments the PM is not the dominant force in UK politics

• can only be dominant in certain circumstances

  • Theresa may - lack of a parliamentary majority (2017-19) and intense divisions over Europe, also lack of charisma made it hard for her to control the political agenda

  • David Cameron in a coalition government had to agree on certain policies

  • Boris Johnson lacked parliamentary support needed to achieve his EU withdrawal agreement in 2019

Individual ministerial responsibility

• principle that members of cabinet take ultimate responsibility for actions of their department as well as personal conduct

• Makes ministers accountable to Parliament

• Ministerial Code of Conduct (last updated 2022) establishes general principles minister should obey.

Examples of IMR in policy failure

• Gavin Williamson - education secretary 2020

  • Resigned following his department overlooking an algorithm that under graded thousands of GCSE and A level students since exams were cancelled due to covid.

  • Remained however in his post as education secretary until 2021 when Johnson dismissed him from government

• Amber Rudd - Home Secretary 2018

  • Misled home affairs select committee and HoC when she admitted there were no home office targets for removing illegal immigrants

  • Sustained attacks from Labour Party and the media further undermined her, making her position untenable

Examples of IMR over personal conduct

• Priti Patel - International development secretary 2017

  • Resigned from May’s government over a series of unofficial private meetings with Israeli ministers that she had

  • failed to report

  • Her actions directly contravened the minsterial code of conduct

• Matt Hancock - Health Secretary 2021

  • Photographed by the Sun kissing a colleague - in violation of his own covid 19 social distancing rules

  • Caused large amounts of media backlash forcing him to resign from government

Examples of IMR not being used

• Priti Patel 2020

  • Cabinet office inquiry found she breached ministerial code by bullying staff

  • PM Johnson did not call for her resignation, demonstrating the political nature of the convention

• Boris Johnson - Partygate 2021-22

  • Exposed limitations of IMR

  • Knowingly mislead parliament regarding dining street parties during covid lockdowns

  • Johnson amended he ode to make resignation personal choice rather than necessity

Collective ministerial responsibility

• all members of government expected to publicly support it

• If a minister cannot do this, they should resign

• They should also not disclose the content of private ministerial discussions

• If the administration is defeated in vote of no confidence, this convention also states all members must resign

Last vote of no confidence

• march 1979

• Labour government of James Callaghan lost vote of no confidence by 311-310

• Caused a sudden general election

Why is collective ministerial responsibility important

• keeping ministerial discussions secret maintains integrity of government

• Public support of government policies maintains unity of government, which is fundamental to survival of the government

Examples of CMR

• Boris Johnson - foreign secretary 2018

  • Resigned when he could not publicly support May’s Chequers Agreement as the basis for a EU withdrawal agreement.

• Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid 2022

  • Sunak resined due to economic policy differences with PM Johnson

  • Javid resigned due to PM’s lack of “integrity” and failure to instil “strong values’

  • Johnson announced his resignation 2 days later showing impact of CMR on strength of government

Examples of CMR not being used

• John Major

  • Did not trust several Eurosceptic members of his own cabinet

• Boris Johnson 2016-18

  • 2 years before his resignation from May’s government, Johnson had been criticising government developments over EU policy

  • May refused to make him resign as foreign secretary despite him arguing in both the daily mail and the sun

Example of CMR being suspended

• Prime minister may acknowledge it is impossible to achieve CMR on certain issues - therefore suspending the convention allowing ministers to publicly disagree with each other

• 2010 Conservative - Lib Dem coalition

  • CMR suspended over issues such as Trident renewal and construction of new nuclear power stations (whcih Lib Dem’s had opposed in the GE). Also campaigned on different sides of the AV referendum in 2011.

• 2016 Heathrow expansion

  • May suspended CMR due to two members of her cabinet including Johnson who had constituents who would be affected by the expansion therefore would publicly oppose.

Presidential prime ministers?

• position of PM becoming increasingly presidential

• Due to becoming dominant in cabinet and media obsession over their character

• Enables PM to dominate decision making as pseudo-presidential figures

Tony Blair being presidential

• Blair’s rhetoric being highly personal, emphasising moral focus and developing his relationship with the public

  • Frequently referred to government policy as his own

• ‘people’s princess’ speech following the death of princess Diana in 1997

  • Demonstrated empathy and articulated the mood of the nation

• High profile personal interventions crucial in driving the Northern Ireland peace process

Boris Johnson being presidential

• highly personal style of leadership

• Celebrity media personality lended him appeal far beyond that of most prime ministers

• Approach during Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and covid pandemic to communicate directly with the public in televised speeches reinforced presidentialism of his government

Arguments PMs are not presidential

• PMs claim no electoral mandate from the public so authority depends on having parliamentary majority and maintaining the support of their party

  • Eg thatchers resignation over loss of support from her cabinet

  • Due to UK being a parliamentary democracy - could not occur in US as presidents could only be forced to resign for committing crimes in defiance of the constitution

• Only capable of displaying presidential characteristics, many of which were lacking

  • Eg May failure to engage with the public during the 2017 general election and loss of parliamentary majority ensured she was unable to govern in a presidential fashion

  • Liz Truss lacklustre media appearances undermined her ability to be a presidential PM