Evaluate The View That Prime Ministers Are Able To Dominate The Cabinet.

Introduction

Cabinet = the Prime Minister and senior ministers, most of whom lead a particular government department

Paragraph Focus

• Para 1 = Power of Patronage

• Para 2 = Cabinet in Decision Making

• Para 3 = Popularity and Support

Para 1 - Weaker Argument = Do not Dominate

• the Prime Ministerʼs power of patronage shouldnʼt be overstated

• In order to maintain their authority over large and often divided parties, they have to represent different factions of the party

• This limits the extent to which they can appoint allies who will be easy to

  manage.

• 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).

• Prime Ministers also sometimes have to appoint and give significant power to other key figures, known as ‘big beastsʼ, within their party.

• For example, despite being a very popular and powerful Prime Minister, Tony Blairʼs power was significantly limited by his Chancellor Gordon Brown.

• Blair had to concede a significant amount of control over a number of policy areas.

Para 1 - Stronger Argument = Dominate

• An effective Prime Minister can use their powers of patronage to shape the top team in a way that enhances their power

• This can allow Prime Ministers to maintain their authority and marginalise the power of individuals in their party who may want to challenge them

• New Prime Ministers often remove former Cabinet Ministers and replace them with their own allies they know they can rely on to share and drive through their vision.

• When Liz Truss became Prime Minister, she removed important members of Johnsonʼs cabinet including Priti Patel, Nadine Dorries and Dominic Raab

• Prime Ministers are able to sack ministers if they seek to undermine their authority by breaking collective ministerial responsibility and use the threat of this to keep ministers in line.

• In November 2023, Sunak sacked Suella Braverman as Home Secretary following a controversial opinion piece in the Times about the Metropolitan Police's handling of pro-Palestinian protests

Para 2 - Weaker Argument = Do not Dominate

• there is only an extent to which Prime Ministers can bypass their cabinet and dominate government policy.

• Even strong Prime Ministers rely on their cabinet to deliver policy.

• The UK Government operates under a core-executive model where power is very fragmented

• the Prime Minister seek to act as managers, using their appointments power and their ability to offer some coordination to gain as much influence as possible

• This leads to the Prime Minister still relying on cabinet ministers to run their departments, whilst relying on cabinet decision making to settle key disputes and pass policies

• When Theresa May was seeking to introduce a Brexit deal, the hardline Brexiteers in her cabinet, had a lot of influence due to their support among the party and forced Theresa May to a harder Brexit deal

Para 2 - Stronger Argument = Dominate

• the Prime Minister is able to dominate their cabinet is that they can bypass the cabinet when determining government policy through informal committees

• Prime Ministers have more control in smaller forums and it is easier to reach a compromise with one or two key ministers than the whole cabinet

• As a consequence, they often use smaller cabinet committees, such as the National Security, bi-lateral meeting with ministers and informal groups to make decisions, shunning the cabinet.

• Under Tony Blair, he and Chancellor Gordon Brown negotiated with each other to determine economic policy

• Blair often used bi-lateral meetings with important ministers to determine policy on a particular area, as he felt he could use them to talk ministers around to his view.

Para 3 - Weaker Argument = Do not Dominate

• Prime Ministers still ultimately rely on the party in order to pass the governmentʼs legislative agenda and on the Cabinet to deliver government policy

• If the Prime Minister distances themselves too much from either/seeks to sideline the cabinet in particular, the cabinet can remove them.

• This happens in particular when the Prime Minister is no longer popular with the public and therefore would no longer help the party win the next election.

• The 3 Conservative Party Prime Ministers - May, Johnson and Truss - were ultimately removed by their cabinets and the wider Conservative Party after becoming unpopular

Para 3 - Stronger Argument = Dominate

• Prime Ministers are able to dominate their Cabinets is by developing personal popularity with the public, which they can use to drive through policy and dominate government

• The Prime Minister can use the media and their personal popularity to reach out to the public and create a level of personal support that can allow them to determine and drive through policy.

• This has been aided by the growth of television and social media, as well as TV debates between leaders becoming key fixtures of campaigns and media coverage of politics often focusing on leaders.

• Tony Blair was very successful in courting support from the right-wing press and developing his personal image.

• Due to his very high popularity at the start of his premiership, he was able to determine a lot of government policy himself, for example in health and education, where there was a lot of centralised control