Prime minister

• PM’s prerogative powers:

  • appointment + dismissal of ministers
  • negotiating foreign treaties
  • commander in chief of armed forces (Sunak didn’t go to Parliament over Huthi air strikes whereas Cameron did over Syria in 2013)
  • conducts foreign policy
  • call early elections (May 2017)
• Informal powers of the PM:

  • economic leadership - budgets setting/general policy (Cameron + austerity programme)
  • National leadership + media focus - PM tell the narrative/control the storylines (Brexit most dominant narrative - Labour now pro Brexit).
• Not powerful/constraints prerogative powers:

  • commander in chief - convention to acquire parliamentary approval
  • PMs don’t appoint judges since 2005
  • Foreign policy agreements can weaken (Brexit agreements/Sunak and Northern Ireland)
• Not powerful/constraints of informal powers:

  • unpopular media focus can destroy reputation (Brown)
  • Size of majority (May lost her majority in 2017)
  • Party leadership - leaders can be removed (Johnson and Truss)
  • Parliamentary vote of no confidence
• The monarch enjoyed what were known as ‘prerogative powers’ before the seventeenth century. These powers could not be controlled by parliament
• However the monarch could not levy taxes without the permission of Parliament, had to have their spending plans approved and could propose laws but needed parliamentary approval again
• The PM should only make major military commitments ‘on the advice and with the sanction of parliament’.
• 1982 - Margaret Thatcher sent a task force to ‘liberate’ the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic from Argentine occupation
• 2003 - Tony Blair committed UK forces to assist the USA in the invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein
• 2020 - Boris Johnson signed the EU ‘divorce treaty’ to formally break the ties between the EU and the UK and began the transition period
• PM does have prerogative powers, for example over foreign and security policy, decisions are taken collectively by the executive
• Transactional leader: more collective approach to their gov (Cabinet gov) e.g. Cameron and John Major
• Transformative leader: tend to dominate and work separately from Cabinet e.g. Blair and Thatcher
• Cabinet government: leader works closely with Cabinet
• Who started the idea of British presidency?

  Tony Blair - charismatic, dominant and operated a sofa government
• Margaret Thatcher used a dominant prime ministerial style by dismissing “wets” (those that opposed her in her own party but did not resign)
• The prime minister IS the dominant force in UK politics:

  • chooses their membership
  • determines main policy objectives of government
  • selects Cabinet and can advance or ruin careers of Cabinet ministers
  • chairs Cabinet and key Cabinet committees
  • media spotlight is focused on the PM
  • decides crucial intelligence and military issues
• The PM is NOT the dominant force in UK politics:

  • can only dominant in certain circumstances
  • lack of parliamentary majority
  • coalition agreement
  • can lose support over allegations and scandals
  • supreme court can challenge their authority
  • attempts to radically transform gov or policy
• Wilson was an admirer of President John F. Kennedy and utilised TV to create a close relationship with the public and directly communicate with them, got pictures with celebs e.g. the Beatles
• development of the media provided presidential

  opportunities for UK PMs - media coverage of personal interaction in global crisis e.g. Johnson + Covid and Blair + “people’s princess” speech for Diana
• Thatcher provided leadership that the media focused on in both the Falklands War (1982) and the miners’ strikes (1984-85)
• Blair highly personal rhetoric - “the people entrusted me with the task of leading their country” also closely modelled Downing street on the White House
• Johnson’s strategy during Russian invasion of Ukraine (24/02/22) and Covid-19 he communicated directly with the British people in televised speeches
• The UK is a parliamentary democracy and the gov is based on the principle of collective ministerial responsibility
• No electoral mandate (directly elected) from public like the US
• Some PMs lack a majority so can’t govern like presidents e.g. Theresa May and John Major
• Many PMs were ill-suited to act as presidents and lack charisma e.g. John Major’s collective approach and Gordon Brown’s public speeches were mocked by comedian Rory Bremner
• Theresa May failed to engage with the public during the 2017 general election
• Constitutionally incapable of being a president - constitutional checks
• Robin Cook resigned from Tony Blair’s gov over its preparations for war against Iraq in 2003
• Johnson was an unenthusiastic supporter on May’s Brexit negotiations so resigned when he decided he could not publicly support her Chequers Agreement as the basis for an EU withdrawal agreement in 2018
• Transactional style: collaborative/collective approach with Cabinet (usually with a Cabinet gov)
• Transformational style: where the PM has political will/a specific aim (usually paired with a dominant/presidential style)
• Cabinet gov: PM consults them and Cabinet is heavily involved
• PM government and domination: won’t work as collaboratively with Cabinet
• Sofa politics: when a PM acts informally, without all of Cabinet, to discuss policy
• A British Presidency: when an PM acts with dominance, charisma and interacts largely with the public, Cabinet usually bypassed
• Tony Blair began the concept of a “presidential“ prime minister
• Blair’s “sofa government“ could be described as a preference for making personal decision making by informal one to one discussions rather than structured meetings
• David Cameron leading the coalition led to the cabinet government returning