pm + cabinet

• Blairites under blair focused on "modernising" public services and foreign policy. Brownites, led by Brown, prioritised social justice, reducing poverty, and were more cautious about wars
• blair took a number of steps to take power away from government. he created a chief of staff, Jonathon Powell, and operated "sofa politics" wherein decisions were taken by blair and a small group of advisors/ministers before being presented to the cabinet for a "rubber stamp"
• a select few ministers were powerful in the coalition government as "the quad" of Cameron, Clegg, Osborne, and Alexander worked together to form important policies without the cabinet, especially in relation to economic policy and austerity
• Johnson served as foreign secretary under Theresa May from 2016 - 2018. Johnson had a loose interpretation of collective ministerial responsibility during this time, often vocally opposing May's Brexit policy after the party lost its majority at the 2017 general election, but may was not powerful enough to sack him
• Braverman served as Home Secretary under Sunak from his appointment in 2022 until she was sacked in 2023. Braverman was a "big beast" who was given an important cabinet position. however, she wrote newspaper articles accusing the Met Police of bias during protests
• Thatcher appointed cabinet ministers who were loyal and supportive of her - known as the "dries" and marginalised "wets" who were closer to the one-nation wing of the party. loyal figures like William Whitelaw helped to protect thatcher from criticism from the high profile "wets" including Michael Heselitine, who resigned from cabinet in 1986 and criticised thatcher from the backbenchers
• Hunt was Health Secretary for 6 years (2012-2018), serving under Cameron and May. In January of 2018 he refused to be demoted, threatening to resign from government if he didn't remain health secretary. eventually May was so weak that she was forced to make him foreign secretary in July of 2018
• Robin Cooke resigned as leader of the Commons in 2003 over his opposition to the Iraq War. He was unable to support Blair and the government policy, which led him to make a resignation speech in the commons
• Johnson lent on special advisonrs to make decisions such as Dominic Cummings. although Cummings resigned in November of 2020.
• Said Javid resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2020 due to disagreements with Cummings about if Javid should be able to appoint his own personal special advisors
• in 2021, the spread of Omicron variant of COVID-19 led to calls from the media for a further lockdown. Boris Johnson held a full cabinet meeting in order to debate further lockdowns over Christmas, giving power and weight to the arguments made by Matt Hancock and others within cabinet. Other crises such as the war in Ukraine led to full cabinet meeting
• weak prime minister have often been forced to have "free votes" on controversial issues through suspending collective ministerial responsibility. This can undermine a PM's power and give the impression that they are unable to control the policy agenda. In April 2024 Demi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, voted against the government's proposals on a smoking ban for those born post 2009
• Collective ministerial responsibility was tested by the coalition government. The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary (2010-2015), Vince Cable, was frequently critical of conservatives in cabinet. for example, in 2014 Vince Cable criticised Osborne's cuts to public spending
• May's first government was largely controlled by her two joint chief's of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill. these two special advisors were inspirational in convincing May to call a general election in 2017 and in formulating the governments fatal manifesto policy on social care. neither of these decisions were decided in cabinet, but ultimately led to May loosing power
• Cameron's trip to the United States in April 2023 as foreign secretary in order to drum up support for the war in the Ukraine shows how 'big beasts' in the cabinet can have a weighty influence on diplomacy and foreign affairs beyond the control of the PM.