Ministerial and collective reponsibility

• Cabinet


  Heads of Ministerial Departments
• Great offices of State

  • Foreign Office
  • Treasury
  • Home
  • Defense
• Who also attends Cabinet

  • Chief Whip
  • Chief Secretary to Treasury
  • Attorney General
  • Party chairperson
• Whips' role

  To make sure their parties MPs, particularly backbenchers vote the way their party leadership wants
• 5 Cabinet ministers and their role

  • Cameron– Foreign
  • Hunt – Treasury
  • Shapps– Defense
  • Cleverly– Home
  • Gove - Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• Sources of the constitution

  • Common Law
  • Statue Law
  • Conventions
  • Treaties (including European)
  • Landmark decisions
  • Authorative works
• Collective Ministerial Responsibility (CMR)


  The idea that given that all Cabinet Minsters get a vote on the issues presented in Cabinet, they are duty bound to promote or defend the govt action, position or legislation of the day. If they disagree, they must keep quiet about it and abide by the collective decision. Furthermore, all Cabinet discussions are to be kept confidential, so people can freely give their opinions and advice, without fear that outsiders will know the exact person who gave this advice.
• If a minister cannot do this, they must leave the government
• CMR applies to all members of the government, regardless of their participation in Cabinet (most will not be members of Cabinet)
• If a junior minister cannot vote alongside the government in Parliament, they are duty bound to resign or they can be fired (pay roll vote)
• Examples of Ministers resigning because they could not agree to government policy during Brexit

  • Phillip Lees (Remain)
  • Greening (wanted to stay at DofE)
  • Jo Johnson (Remain)
  • David Davis
  • Boris Johnson
  • Liz Truss (Leave)
• Historically, after leaving, the cabinet minister could often give a famous speech embarrassing the leader – Geoffrey Howe (personality clash), Robin Cook (Iraq)
• In the Coalition years, Cameron seemed more relaxed than previously when Vince Cable (LD Dept of Business) was not asked to resign, nor fired after critising the austerity approach of Cameron and Osborne
• In the 2016 (Brexit) Referendum, whilst the government did hold position (remain) it allowed Cabinet minsters to campaign against the government (Gove, Chris Grayling, Priti Patel, Ian Duncan Smith)
• This suspension of CMR in 2016 has not allowed the Cabinet to return to normal. Since 2016, there has been open rebellion (on both sides) against the government position on Brexit, with people leaking Cabinet conversations, and writing in support of opposition to governmental positions
• A minster resigning because s/he cannot agree is upholding CMR. However, a minister openly disagreeing with Cabinet, or leaking Cabinet discussions is undermining CMR
• Examples of CMR still applying

  • Gavin Williamson was sacked for leaking. (May)
  • Robin Cook stepped down to oppose the Iraq War (Blair)
  • Ministers have resigned if they didn't agree with May's Brexit policy (May)
  • Johnson fired anyone who disagreed with him over Brexit. OR they resigned (including his brother). He only appointed loyalists
  • Sunak, Johnson, Truss's ministries have been stable – perhaps the Brexit referendum and the minority govt created problems for CMR that have gone away since
• Examples of CMR not applying

  • Cabinet discussions have been leaked with regularity under May. 2016-2019
  • 5 of May's Cabinet refused to vote with the govt on Brexit. 2016 -2019
  • Cameron allowed ministers to campaign against the Government position. 2016
  • Johnson was allowed to remain in government whilst not voting for the 3rd runway. 2016-2019
  • Johnson has appointed loyalists, therefore, there is no need to resign over issues that people may have done in the past
• Individual Ministerial Responsibility (IMR)


  A Minister is responsible for running their department and their own personal behaviour. This is measured against the ministerial code which is interpreted by the PM. They are also responsible for any public utterances they make on either they department or themselves at any time, particularly in the House of Commons or in front of Select Committees.
• However, these can be ignored "as long as they retain the confidence of the Prime Minster". He or she is the ultimate judge of whether the Minster is fit to hold office.
• Examples of IMR applying

  • Priti Patel – 2017 – worked outside her ministry
  • Amber Rudd – Windrush
  • Estelle Morris
  • Michael Fallon - #Pestminster
  • Matt Hancock – for breaking Covid guidance
• Examples of IMR not applying

  • Damien Green – waited too long
  • Gavin Williamson – incompetence
  • Priti Patel – bullying
  • Robert Jenrick – bending the rules to allow donors to profit
  • Michael Howard - prisoners
  • Norman Lamont – Black Wednesday
  • Boris Johnson – for breaking Covid guidance
• Matt Hancock was forced to resign last weekend after a personal indiscretion and not a response to any failures within his department. In fact in this government it is very unlikely for a resignation or sacking to come as a result of breaking the convention of Individual Ministerial Responsibility or acting in an unlawful way.
• Matt Hancock was found guilty by a judge to have acted unlawfully when his department failed to publish details within 30 days of contracts being signed. He did not resign.
• Priti Patel was found by an independent report to have bullied a senior civil servant. The report said she had broken the ministerial code - a set of guidelines outlining the behaviour of ministers. Boris Johnson failed to sack his home secretary.
• The Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick was found by a judicial review to have acted unlawfully by approving a Tory donors application to build houses. He did not resign.
• The government acted unlawfully when it awarded a £560,000 contract to a firm run by former colleagues of Michael Gove and the PM's adviser Dominic Cummings. Gove, who was responsible for awarding the contract did not resign.
• Gavin Williamson did not resign after the 'omnishambles' that was the A level results fiasco last year, where thousands of state school students had their grades initially downgraded after the use of a controversial algorithm. It took a number of days for the government to u-turn.
• There have been no resignations after a litany of failures over covid, Britain has one of the highest death tolls in Europe and has had the deepest recession.
• Examples of IMR/CMR and whether they were upheld

  • (S) I don't agree with government decision to invade Iraq (Robin Cook 2003)
  • (-S/-R) Slagged off the PM when he was a (LD) Cabinet Minister (Cable 2010)
  • (R) Defence Minister Slept with a Russian Spy (Profumo 1963)
  • (S) Leaked Cabinet Conversations (Williamson 2019)
  • (R) Lied in court, went to jail (Hune 2012
  • (S) Couldn't do my job (Estelle Morris 2002)
  • (-S/-R) I don't agree with the government decision to invade Iraq (Claire Short, DIfD 2003)
  • (-S/-R) Couldn't do his job (Williamson 2020)
  • (-S/-R) Cabinet Convesations being leaked under May (2016-9)