I&CMR Evidence Flashcards
Suella Braverman email
March 2023 - she sent an email to the Conservative Party supporters blaming “an activist blob of leftwing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party” for the failure of her department (the Home Office) to stop channel crossings.
Failure of the exams algorithm
Summer 2020 - head of Ofqual Sally Collier resigned, having overseen the development of the algorithm, whilst Secretary of State for Education at the time Gavin Williamson didn’t resign.
1995 controversial sack
1995 - the Home Secretary Michael Howard controversially sacked Derek Lewis, the director general of the Prison Service, after criticism of the escape of prisoners from Parkhurst Jail.
Partygate
In may 2022, after the ‘partygate’ scandal broke out and dominated the news, Boris Johnson revised the Ministerial Code.
Number of parties in Number 10 during COVID lockdowns.
The key change Johnson made was to weaken the rules on individual ministerial responsibility so that ministers who breach Ministerial Code are no longer expected to resign, but to publicly apologise and/or accept a reduction in their pay.
Boris Johnson did not resign
Matt Hancock 2021
June 2021 the Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigned after a video showed him having an extramarital affair with a colleague, which also meant he had breached his own department’s COVID regulations.
Hancock originally tried to just apologise rather than resign, and Johnson’s acceptance of it, could be used to show that individual ministerial responsibility wasn’t important, it was the media and public backlash that proved important.
Suella Braverman scandal
October 2022 - forced to resign as Home Secretary under Liz Truss’ administration after it emerged she had used her personal email to send classified information, which was a serious breach of ministerial code.
Printing Patel 2020
2020 - independent investigation concluded that then Home Secretary Priti Patel had bullied servants, which is a clear breach of individual ministerial responsibility in relation to personal conduct.
Patel failed to offer her resignation to PM Boris Johnson.
Dominic Raab
2023 - deputy PM and Secretary of State for justice Dominic Raab has stayed in place despite allegations of bullying and mistreatment of staff from over 20 civil servants.
Free vote 2013
David Cameron allowed a free vote on the legislation of same-sex marriage, which Phillip Hammond voted against.
Free vote 2023
Rishi Sunak said he would allow a free vote on the imposition of sanctions against former PM Boris Johnson if he is found by the Privileges Committee to have lied to Parliament over Partygate.
1975 European Communities Referendum
Harold Wilson recognised that he had allowed ministers to campaign on both sides of the argument in order to prevent resignations by anti-Europeans.
2010 coalition gov on ministerial responsibility
Liberal Democrat ministers wouldn’t be bound by collective responsibility on four key issues on which they strongly disagreed with the conservatives.
1 - construction of nuclear power stations
2 - tax allowances for married couples
3 - higher education funding
4 - renewal of Trident
Rishi Sunak over the Northern Ireland Protocol
- when he was Chancellor in Boris Johnson’s government, Rishi Sunak publicly supported and voted for the Northern Ireland Protocol that was a key part of Johnson’s Brexit deal.
- in feb 2023 when PM himself he criticised the Northern Ireland protocol and replaced it with the Windsor Framework.
Penny Mordaunt and Robert Buckland under Liz Truss in 2022
- in October 2022, leader of the HoC Penny Mordaunt and Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland publicly opposed Liz Truss’ government’s policy that benefits shouldn’t rise with inflation, but didn’t resign.
- this shows that collective ministerial responsibility wasn’t important in a weak Liz Truss government, as government ministers publicly oppose government policy without resigning or being forced to resign.
