Functions of political parties - recruitment of leaders

Importance of leaders

• Possible govt ministers!

Difference of the role of the leader in the ruling vs the opposition party

• Ruling party

  • Party leader is the PM and therefore controls the appointment of all ministers

• Opposition party

  • Leader choses small frontbench who lead with them

Role of parties in shaping leaders

• Internal party organisations and committees allow leaders to ‘cut their teeth’

• This formal organisation gives opportunities for party members to be trained as leaders

Example of importance of party leadership - Labour in 2015-16

• Ed Miliband resigned post-2015 GE defeat

  • Created a power vacuum

• Party membership voted for Corbyn who is v far left compared to the MPs and Peers

  • Corbyn was the party leader from 2015-20 but MPs in Plmt refused to acknowledge him as their leader

Example of importance of party leadership - Conservatives in 2019

• Lost faith in May post-Brexit failure

• Johnson was the favourite among MPs and members of the party (who vote for the leader) which meant he was elected as party leader and therefore PM

Liberal Democrat system of election of a party leader

• 2019 and 2020 - to run for leader, candidates had to

1. Be an MP

2. Have the support of 10% of LD MPs (so 1 other MP)

3. Have the support of at least 200 party members across at least 20 local parties

• Nominations close, candidates campaign and are elected by all party members (1 member 1 vote)

  • Use AV to ensure majority

    • 2019, 2020 - leadership contests only between 2 candidates (Swinson and Davey, Davey and Moran)

      • Ed Davey - centrist ‘Orange Book’

      • Swinson, Moran - socially liberal, progressive

Political parties are effective in their role of recruiting and training political leaders 

• Almost all senior politicians in the UK are associated with a party

• Parties control who is chosen to stand for election (and therefore who is elected)

  • This means parties then control all the members of elected bodies

• Parties also train up future party leaders by giving political candidates experience of canvassing, debating and running constituency parties

  • They are trained in the values and processes of their party, allowing them to test and grow their political skills and work their way up in a democratic way

Political parties are ineffective in their role of recruiting and training political leaders 

• Parties choose charismatic and popular leaders as opposed to those who are most competent

  • Skills to win elections ≠ skills to run the country and make difficult decisions

• Party membership elects leaders rather than MPs, who are democratically elected, while the party membership makes up 2% of the population with disproportionate power!

  • Leaders chosen by these few people have been

1. Crazy out of touch with the wider party like Corbyn

2. Rich and also out of touch like Johnson