Pm and cabinet

• Primus inter pares - first amongst equals
• How does pm assert authority over cabinet

  • Hire and fire
  • Collective ministerial responsibility
  • Inforal WhatsApp inner cabinet
  • Kitchen cabinet - Blair and sofa
  • Cabinet omitted formal
  • Bilateral meetings
• What does executive do

  • make policy - Rwanda - may 2015 queen speech - in out referendum
  • passing legislation - governing party - POLICY DECIISON S- 2010-2015 streamlined benefits to universal credit
  • national first response - Covid -
• Preorgative powers -

  Appoitnments - treaties - knighthood - emergency powers - eg Cameron was knighted to then become a minister when Sunak became PM - stretched - Boris proroguing parliament was unlawful but still occurred
• Convention for pm to be mp nor lord
• no requirements to become pm
• restriction on being pm - judges, armed forces member, civil servants, bankruptcry
• leader of largest common party - can change without election as it is just convention to have a leader - overall 15 - since 2019 - Sunak and Truss
• Power of pm

  • ceo of gov
  • chairs cabinet
  • head of state
  • chief law
  • global stage rep
• Office of n10

  200 staff civil servants

  SPADS - Dominic Cummings
• PM - bombed Yemen Houthi’s without consulting Parliament and Syria 2012 cameron
• Factor that effect policy making

  • promises form manifesto
  • personal conviction
  • popular
  • external pressure
  • society
• manifesto - labour

  • 6500 new teachers
  • Free breakfast club
  • gb energy to cut bills
  • Immediate lords reform
  • 8500 my doctors
  • 40,000 gp appointments
• Manifesto Conservative

  • 2010 - inheritance tax threshold £1 million
  • 2015 - referendum on Brexit
  • 2019 - get Brexit done
  • 2024 - National service - replace alevels - defence spending up 2.5%
• Personal convictions of PM’s

  • Thatcher - buy council houses 1/3 off
  • Blair - human rights act and Iraq
  • Boris - Get Brexit done
  • Sunak - Rwanda and illegal migrants
• Referendum outcomes

  • 1975 - stay in EEC
  • 1998 - Devoltion
  • 2016 - Leave EU
• Response to crisis

  • IRA special courts, plane travel rules eg liquid, no bin sin train stations
  • Pressure from public - FSM - Marcus rashford during Covid
  • Post office scandal - itv drama
  • Blood scandal - news reports came out - compensation offered
• changes in society

  • abortion + divorce - 60’s - less church control
  • Death penalty abolished 1965
  • same sex marriage 2013
  • LGBT serv win armed forces after 2000
• Can pm push through unpopular policy :

  Yes if powerful enough

  • Thatcher and Poll Tax 1989 - internal oppositon non existent - 100+ majority - lords are conservative hereditary - politically catastrophic - 319 - 183 backwoodsman peers used - 39 rebellion
  • Overcame checks nad balances with majoity - patronage means wont annoy her — can affrpd rebels wth majority
  • ignored public opinion
  • ousted by own MPs nov 1990 - makes lords reform inevitable
• Can pm push through unpopular policy

  War and Blair

  • weapons of mass destruction - cement us ties - 1 million march - foriegn sec resigned
  • used large major - 84 oppose internally
  • Used ‘dossier of intelligence’
  • Tracl record
• power of pm - variable powers

  • election majority - personal mandate - Johnson + get Brexit done 2019
  • personal qualities
  • how well do they control events
• pm powers depends on

  = majority size

  • opinion polls - local elections
  • other cabinet ministers eg boris and truss - Suella and Sunak
  • united party
  • opposition
• [patronage powers

  • hire and fire - boris 17 changes - Sunak 9 and 5 new ministers
  • Cabinet needs to reflect factions of party eg Thatcher wets adn dries and may - remainers and brexiteers
  • diversity
  • Ministers revenge - Thatcher sacked Heseltine - potential leader
  • Howe - architect of thatcherism reigned in protest over euro scepticism
• Collective resposnibility

  ministers can debat ein private but have to leace cabinet if publicly denounce - Johnson and may - suella and protests
• Cabinet ministers

  • Steve Bartley - health to environment - strikes
  • Nortern Ireland is seen as political banishment
  • PM set tone but rarely involve in policy making
• Power of cabinet

  • own department and civil servants
  • face of policy - jeremy hunt and budgets - Suella and immigration - boris and brexit
  • unsackable ministers -Brown under Blair - Johnson under may - influential in Brexit -
  • resigning - most powerful - 62 resignation Boris - allowed Sunak to become pm - chris pincher scandal
• Ministerial resignations

  • Amber Rudd - home sec - Windrush scandal - unable to accept cmr over a policy
  • Kwasi Karteng - inability to deliver - tax cut measures and budget were rehearsed
  • Suella — personal misconduct - sent a confidential email to backbencher and accused police of favouritism in Palest one protests
  • Dominic Raab - deputy pm and justice - bullying
  • Matt Hancock health - breached social distancing with affair
• Good chap idea

  • Randox - Hancock lobbied for £500 mil gov contracts - Boris ignored
  • Johnson and partyate - nolan principle of honesty
  • Chris pincher + priti Patel - accountability and leadership
  • Neil parish - tractor - accountability and integrity
• Johnson - ministrial code doesn’t create or impose any legal duties and isnt regulated by law

  Matter of judgment for pm
• Presidentialism

  • preorgatuve powers similar to presidential
  • - distance from government - Thatcherism and Blairism
  • populist outreach - boris Covid speeches - high news stories Sunak and post office - present as non establishment figures
  • party leaders are image of parties - Starmer visiting primary schools and hospitals and Ed davey in pubs
  • personal mandates - Sunak adn Rwanda - Boris and Brexit
  • use of special advisrs - Boris and Cummings - Downing Street machine - Blair sofa politics
  • Blair meeting with bush for Iraq - control freak - all press had to be approved by n10
• Presidentialism no

  • Queen is cikturlly seen as head of state - parliamentary gov - lack of seperation of powers and fusion means always part of government
  • removed or replaced without causing an election - may mp for maidenhead so easily replaced eg sunak
  • collective government and cabinet - thatcher and Johnson resigned over cabinet walkouts - presidents have mere advisors
  • Coalition government means more debate - abolished Blair’s policy unit and gave ministers greater responsibility - Michael gove and education
  • style v substance - presdietn suffers lots of defeats but pm has whip
• presdientialism - constrain by cabinetr - may appointed Boris Eve though he betrayed Cameron