Prime Minister and Cabinet

10 formal powers of the PM

• Appointing and dismissing all government ministers

• Granting peerages, honours and chairs of many public bodies

• Determining date of general election

• Conducting relations with foreign powers

• Commander in chief of the armed forces

• Ultimate responsibility for national security

• Leading relations with EU

• Leader of governing party

• Head of the civil service

Three examples of formal prime ministerial powers for 9 marker

Appointing or dismissing all government ministers, determining the date of general elections and leader of governing party

What are the 4 informal powers of the PM

• Chief policymaker

• control over the economy (shared with Chancellor)

• Parliamentary leader

• Chief spokesman for the government

What does primus inter pares mean

First amongst equals

What does the principle of primus inter pares refer to

The Prime Minister is legally equal to other ministers but has more influence because they lead the government.

7 restraints on PM power

• Can be overruled by cabinet

• Can be overruled by parliament

• Vote of no confidence in parliament

• Not completely free to choose cabinet

• Can be restrained by international allies

• Can be overruled by majority of their party

• Fixed term parliaments act limited power of determining date of general election

When was the last time a vote of no confidence in parliament forced a PM to call a general election

1979, PM James Callaghan

5 short term factors that have a favourable affect on informal PM powers

• Large majority in parliament

• Healthy economy

• Mandate

• Dominant personality

• Good media image

What majority did Blair get in 1997

A landslide majority of 179

What majority did Blair get in 2001

167

What majority did Blair get in 2005

66

Example of a PM with a dominant personality

Margaret Thatcher

Example of a PM with a healthy economy

Blair who oversaw an average of 2.8% growth from 1997-2007 which was better than other EU countries

Example of a PM with a good media image

David Cameron

Who is in the core executive (5 points)

PM, Cabinet, senior civil servants, cabinet committees and cabinet office

What makes up Parliament

the 650 MPs and around 800 Lords but numbers fluctuate

Who is the governing party

MPs from biggest single party

What makes up the government

Technically the approx 100 ministers but its mostly the 25 cabinet ministers and a few juniors

4 main roles of the core executive

• making policy

• financing

• passing legislation

• national first responder

What is the core executive role in making policy

core exec must set political priorities and come up with the policies to instigate them

Who has the job of implementing policy

the civil service

What is the core executive role in passing legislation

Although legislation must be passed through parliament, major bills are discussed and approved at cabinet level first

What is the core executive role in financing

Make decisions on taxation and government spending, usually manifested as spring budget and autumn statement or vice versa

What is the core executive role of being national first responder

Executive required to put emergency measures in place during national emergencies which requires cooperation across a lot of departments and ministers

Example of a core executive group involved in national emergencies

COBRA/ COBR who do high-level co-ordination and decision making in the event of major or catastrophic emergencies, including natural disasters, terrorist attacks and major industrial accidents or disruption

What are royal prerogative powers

Powers historically exercised by the monarch but are now in the hands of the PM and government ministers

Examples of the royal prerogative powers

• appointment and dismissal of ministers

• deployment of troops overseas

• Making and ratifying treaties

What are the 4 most significant royal prerogative powers according to UCL

• Declaring war and deploying forces

• Public and judicial appointment

• Granting honours and pardons

• Conducting foreign policy and treaties

What are the royal prerogative powers that are still exercised by the king called

reserve powers or personal prerogatives

What are the reserve powers that the King still exercises on the advice of ministers

• appointing and dismissing ministers including the PM

• Summoning and proroguing parliament

• Royal assent of legislation (although this technically happens automatically once a bill passes in both houses

Under what condition can the King ignore the advice of ministers and exercise a power himself

King has power to dismiss a Prime Minister who refuses to resign after losing the confidence of the House of Commons as he is guardian of the constitution

What case set the precedent for the monarch’s involvement in future prorogations of Parliament

The Supreme Court’s Miller/Cherry ruling of 2019

What did the Cherry v Miller ruling decide

A monarch could refuse a future request for prorogation if its effect would be to frustrate or prevent parliament from carrying out its constitutional functions.

Ministers are accountable for their use of what

the prerogative powers and statutory powers

What are statutory powers

powers conferred on ministers through Acts of Parliament

What can happen if there is concern that ministers have exercised prerogative powers wrongly

They can be held liable for their actions through judicial review like the Cherry v Miller case of 2019

Examples of some prerogative powers coming under more control by parliament

Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010

Convention on commons vote on military action

what is Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010

Placed civil service regulation on a statutory basis and put in law that parliament must see treaties before government ratifies them

What did the 2011 fixed term parliaments act do

removed monarch’s power to dissolve parliament on the advice of ministers and set in legislation a default fixed election date for general elections

Example of the war prerogative being affected by convention

Commons vote became expected after Iraq in 2003 but was not followed by Theresa May in 2018 when she authorised air strikes on Syria without vote in Parliament

What does Covid show about the nature and extent of prerogative powers

COVID showed that emergency action is now mainly taken using statutory powers, not prerogative ones. Ministers used Acts like the Coronavirus Act 2020 to make government guidelines actually enforceable

What is the ministerial code

A set of rules and guidelines issued at the start of a new government by the PM about the conduct of their government

Where is the definition of individual ministerial responsibility found

In the ministerial code

three points from the latest version of the ministerial code

• Have to uphold high standards in accordance with seven principles of public life

• Give accurate and truthful information to parliament

• Must publish details on gifts, external meetings and travel

Example of a definition of individual ministerial responsibility

Ministers have a duty to parliament to account and be held to account for the policies, decisions and actions of their departments and agencies

Non government specific definition of individual ministerial responsibility

It is the constitutional convention that ministers are responsible for the actions of their department and that they should resign if their department makes serious mistakes

When are ministers expected to resign

If they knowingly mislead parliament, it is rare for them to resign because of mistakes made in their role as head of a department

Example of a minister resigning because of mistakes made by their department

Sir Thomas Dugdale, minister of Agriculture in Churchill’s peace time government over Critchell Down in 1954

What happened in the Critchell Down case

Minister Thomas Dugdale took responsibility for mistakes made by his civil servants over the compulsory purchase of land in Dorset and resigned

Why is it unlikely that someone would resign like Dugdale these days

It is widely accepted that the business of a gov department is so large that ministers cannot be expected to know it all

What is the Howard Principle

Ministers are responsible for policy, not implementation

Who was Charles Clarke and what scandal was he involved in

Home secretary under Tony Blair who was challenged in 2006 about the release of over 100 foreign prisoners who hadn’t been considered for deportation

What was Clarke’s public response to the scandal

He admitted the department had taken their eye off of the ball but that he had a duty to stay in p

What eventually happened to Clarke

He was sacked 10 days later as part of a wider cabinet reshuffle after poor local election results

What does the Charles Clarke case show about individual ministerial responsibility

The principle is flexible and often depends on political circumstances and public pressure rather than rigid rules

What three things do the fate of an individual minister depend on

• How serious the issue is perceived to be

• Attitude of PM

• level of criticism from parliament and media

What has eroded the concept of individual ministerial responsibility since the 1980s

many government functions have been delegated to government agencies

Why is it now harder to hold ministers to account for operational responsibility (3 points)

• Lines of accountability have been blurred due to increasing delegations to agencies

• Government departments are much bigger

• Howard Principle

Example of Howard Principle in action

in 1995, Michael Howard controversially sacked the director general of the prison service after a series of high profile prison escapes, rather than resigning himself

How has civil service anonymity been eroded

Blurring of the lines of accountability which has meant in some cases civil servants rather than ministers have been held responsible for departmental errors

Example of civil servants being held responsible for departmental errors

3 civil servants suspended in 2012 under secretary Patrick McLoughlin after mistakes made in awarding of railway franchises

Circumstance under which most ministerial resignations occur

Personal misconduct or the illusion of it

What is collective ministerial responsibility

Ministers must support all of the decisions of the government in public or resign from the executive

Are cabinet discussions public

No, they should remain confidential

Example of the resignation of a minister who couldn’t accept a collective decision

2003 resignation of Robin Cook in opposition to war in Iraq as he felt there was no international agreement or domestic support

What do most dissatisfied ministers do rather than resign

grumble from within or leak

When and why did Iain Duncan Smith resign from the Cameron government

in 2016 stating that he couldn’t accept cuts to disability benefit when at the same time Osbourne had made changes in the budget to benefit higher earners

What were all of the reasons for IDS resignation in 2016

personality differences over Brexit and Osbourne thinking he wasn’t very clever as well as the disability benefit ones

4 issues exempt it was agree LD ministers would be exempt from collective responsibility in the coalition government during negotiations

• tax allowances for married couples

• construction of new nuclear power stations

• higher education funding

• an alternative to trident

When has it proven necessary to suspend collective responsibility since 1945

Two referendums on EU membership

How many of Cameron’s cabinet ministers campaigned against him and remain

5 along with london mayor boris johnson

Modern example of a minister having to resign because of an error of their department

Amber Rudd in 2018

How did the Windrush scandal show individual ministerial responsibility?

Home Secretary Amber Rudd resigned in 2018 after it was revealed she had misled Parliament about deportation targets for illegal immigrants, which wrongly affected legal Windrush migrants.

Which recent period in UK politics was exceptional in the number of ministerial and PMinisterial resignations

UK’s departure of the EU

What are resignations a sign of

the PM has lost the confidence of their party

Is it more usual for ministers to resign over personal or political scandals

usually personal

Example of a minister resigning due to personal scandal

Minister for the cabinet office for justice Damian Green who had accessed adult websites on his parliamentary computer during working hours

When was the one time the power to appoint the cabinet was not wholly for the PM

2010 coalition when david cameron had to allow the liberal democrats 5 of the 22 cabinet posts which was a formal restraint on PMs power to appoint

Does the PM have total freedom to appoint who they want

no there are some constraints like limited pool of talent, rewarding key allies and loyalty, maintaining factions and diversity

Who are natural backbenchers

MPs who don’t have the aptitude for high office or whose views are too far out of the mainstream to make them acceptable ministers

Who has to be included in cabinets

defeated rivals if a PM was elected by a leadership contest and other senior grandees

Example of defeated leadership rivals appointments

John Major retained Douglas Hurd in 1990 as foreign sec and gave Michael Heseltine a choice of senior posts

Example of a PM using cabinet positions to establish their authority

Theresa May’s public firing of George Osbourne in 2016

Example of a PM who was able to tie up a potentially troublesome MP in a senior post

Blair’s continued appointment of Brown as chancellor and May choosing Johnson as foreign sec

How did Theresa May balance faction within her cabinet

had key pro leave figures like Johnson as foreign sec and Philip Hammond as chancellor and Amber Rudd as home sec who were remain

which PM had no women in his first cabinet

John Major

Who was first female MP to serve in one of the big 3 jobs

Margaret Beckett as foreign sec in 2006

What is a presidential government

An executive dominated by one individual

what factors affect the relationship between the PM and cabinet

• management skills of PM

• PM’s ability to set the agenda

• Use of cabinet committees and informal groups in decision making

• Development of PM’s office/Cabinet office

• Impact of wider political situation

How would a good PM use appointments to assert control over the cabinet

Using the power to appoint and dismiss ministers to remove poor performers, bring in new blood and marginalise opponents

How did Thatcher use cabinet appointments to establish herself

She promoted key supporters like Nigel Lawson and Norman Tebbit to build a cabinet in her own image

Who were the Quad

The 4 key decision makers in the coalition government

What is bilateralism

when PM works with just one other minister rather than consulting whole cabinet

Cabinet secretary

Head of the civil service who works with the PM to draw up cabinet agendas and minutes

Cabinet committees

groups of junior and cabinet ministers who make decisions on specific issues

Cabinet office

administrative support for the cabinet, PM’s office in all but name

Special advisors

privately employed experts who advise ministers and PM

PM policy unit

a group of special advisors who work for the PM

How did Thatcher’s dominant style affect cabinet decision-making

Key decisions often made in small groups or bilaterally which sidelined cabinet discussion

What policy illustrates Thatcher's dominance despite Cabinet opposition?

The Community Charge (Poll Tax) was introduced in 1990, despite warnings from within Cabinet