power of PM and cabinet

• Prime Minister


  The most powerful and important figure in UK politics
• Factors governing the Prime Minister's selection of ministers

  • Small talent pool to select from
  • Prioritise broad abilities like communication and administration over specialist knowledge
  • Appointing personal/ideological allies
  • Rewarding loyalty
  • Consolidating potential rivals
  • Maintaining balance between different factions
• Michael Gove became Education Secretary in 2010 despite having no experience of the English state education system
• Prime Ministers often appoint ministers who have been shadow ministers or held junior ministerial positions, but this doesn't always happen
• Incoming Prime Ministers may remove cabinet ministers to establish their authority and put their own stamp on the government
• Prime Ministers often appoint key allies and supporters to important cabinet positions
• Prime Ministers may also appoint former leadership rivals to cabinet positions to consolidate support
• Maintaining a balanced cabinet between different factions is important to keep the party united
• There has been an effort by recent Prime Ministers to increase the gender and ethnic diversity of the cabinet
• Factors affecting the relationship between the Prime Minister and Cabinet


  • Prime Minister's management skills
  • Use of reshuffles to inject fresh blood
  • Marginalising opponents and discontents
  • Giving voice to different factions
  • Avoiding being perceived as too domineering or too weak
• If the Prime Minister is perceived as too domineering, they can lose goodwill and support within the cabinet
• If the Prime Minister is perceived as too weak, they can struggle to hold the party together and lead the country
• Prime Ministers who sideline factions within their party can lose support from the backbenches
• If a prime minister is perceived as becoming too domineering by their cabinet

  They lose goodwill within the cabinet, and when there is a leadership challenge, no one is overwhelmingly supportive, leading to the prime minister falling from office
• A prime minister is perceived as being too weak


  They do not get into trouble
• Theresa May was seen as not being strong enough to hold the party together and lead the country through Brexit


  She was then handed out
• If a prime minister is seen to sideline a faction within the party

  They can start losing huge chunks of the backbenches
• Tony Blair was seen as ignoring the left of the party and the divisions over the Iraq war


  By the time he went out of office in 2010, he was starting to lose support
• Some prime ministers are obsessed with the fear of party rivals and the interior politics, trying to undermine or keep quiet potential rivals
• Harold Wilson was completely paranoid through most of his time in office about who else in the leading members of the party were after his job, rather than fully concentrating on what was best in terms of appointments to bring about the best outcomes
• Powers of the prime minister as chair of cabinet meetings


  • Decides what is discussed and what is not, dictates the length and format of discussions, whether there is a formal vote, sums up the discussions at the end
• Cabinet meetings are supposed to be secret, but the leaks during Johnson's time as prime minister suggest not everyone is happy with the agenda or decisions made</b>
• Use of cabinet committees and informal groups


  • Allows the prime minister to manage their relationship with cabinet and increase their own power and control
• The relationship between the prime minister and the chancellor


  Is a key dynamic within the executive, as economics is so massively important
• Decisions can also be made in informal ways, such as meetings between the prime minister and senior figures, or informal groups like Cameron's 'quad'
• Harold Wilson had an informal 'kitchen cabinet' that was said to be more powerful than his actual cabinet in making decisions
• There has been speculation about the role of special advisers, particularly Dominic Cummings, in driving policy under Johnson, rather than through the normal official channels
• The prime minister's office and the cabinet office

  • Have grown in power and influence over time, with attempts to centralise control
• Blair enhanced the press office, as managing the message became as important as what the government was actually doing
• Johnson has made preparations for daily televised press briefings, echoing the 'spin doctor' era under Blair
• The political and economic situation

  Can have a massive impact on the relationship between the prime minister and cabinet
• Examples of events impacting the prime minister-cabinet relationship

  • The Falklands War boosting Thatcher's authority, Blair's 1997 landslide giving him dominance, the 2008 financial crisis undermining Brown, the Brexit vote undermining Cameron and May
• Johnson's government has been dominated by the COVID-19 crisis


  Limiting its ability to drive a political agenda
• There is an argument that the relationship between cabinet and prime minister has changed over time, with the prime minister gaining more power
• Some of the divides over Europe which had cost the jobs of multiple conservative leaders over time were seen as something of the past and things moved on in terms of the agenda over the last year
• It has been very difficult for Johnson's government to set much of a political agenda because it has been so completely dominated by COVID-19
• The government has relied on daily briefings, scientific and medical advice, and other measures to respond to the COVID-19 crisis
• There is an argument that the relationship between cabinet and prime minister has changed over time, with the prime minister becoming more dominant or the cabinet remaining important
• Personalization of leadership


  Leadership seems to have become more personalized, with the prime minister being expected to set the agenda and their government being seen as an extension of them
• Prime minister's reliance on advisers and allies

  Prime ministers tend to rely on a close group of special advisers and cabinet allies rather than the cabinet as a whole