PM and Cabinet Flashcards
Arguments cabinet unify government for and against
For
Rewards locality and sacks independence eg. Sajid javid as chancellor 2020 after refusing demands from Johnson and Cummings ( Johnson’s chief advisor ) he then resigned during 2020 cabinet reshuffled and succeeded by Sunak.
Johnson sacked Hammond and Stewart who were remainers
Appointed Jason Rees mogg and leader of commons and lord president of council as he was pro leave.
But
11 MPs resigned under may gov in 2017-19
kwartangs mini budget resisted by cabinet and u turned
Zahawi helped to drive Jonson out
But
Callaghan and major slim Majority increased power of cabinet
Examples of cabinet significant on foreign policy.
Iraq 2013 Cameron was degreased in a vote on Syrian air strikes 285 to 272
Iraq 2003 Blair consulted the whole parliament for the issue of foreign policy no just cabinet
Don’t need to consult cabinet before action eg. Thatcher didn’t for falklands
Blair by convention made consulting all of parliament regular.
Undermine foreign sec.
But
Unable to sack certain ministers eg. Johnson as foreign secretary to keep balance
Thatchers cabinet had many ww2 veterans eg. Lord carrington gave thatcher advice regaikrly through falklands war 1982 mostly listened to.
Truss Ukraine has used pol sign to increase support for Ukraine (hawkish)
MAy consulted cabinet before Syrian strikes in 2018 notparliament .
In crisis like Covid ministers v important eg Hancock given law making powers..
Does cabinet have authority?
De jure yeah
Authoritative works such as Walter bagehots work of the English constitution states the Cabernet is the ‘most powerful body in the state’ demonstrates cabinets significance. Calls it a board of control choesennby the legislator to rules the state . But ideas outdated 1867
Sofa gov counters
But
Blair reliant of advisors and close colleagues for decisions not cabinet preferred private disgcussion of issues rather than cabinet meetings undermines cabinet role scrutiny and legislation
But Cameron about,ish lm strategy unit and delivery unit cus of fears of micro management.
Examples of ministers not being held to account for IMR
Johnson/Sunak fined and accused of lying to the Commons about parties (2022). Both eventually resigned after losing control of their party.
• Patel £340,000 bullying fine (2021)- did not resign
• All but 13 Tory MPs voted against suspending Owen Patterson although he had broken ministerial code (lobbying scandal) lobbied for random and lynns country foods
Examples of ministers being held to account for IMR
Amber Rudd (2018) resigned after claiming she “unintentionally” misled parliament- after she appeared before a select committee.
• Johnson referred to Commons Privileges Committee (2022)
• Hancock resigned as Health Secretary in 2022, over an affair which broke his own lockdown restrictions.
Do ministers take blame for departmental mistakes examples they don’t
Williamson exam grades fiasco (2020)
• Chris Grayling waisted £42.5 million on a ferry company without any ferries (2018) plus other errors (did not resign).
• Dominic Raab did not resign for staying on holiday as the Afghan government was toppled by the Taliban (2021)
• 2021: Priti Patel was sued by Rutnam for bullying –fined £370k -
Williamson refused to resign after the errors with the grading system in 2020- not respecting convention. Williamson supported by the PM and Head of Ofqual sacked instead = usually delegate responsibility, however, take credit for successes.
All sacked or reshuffled later
Do knisyers take blame for their eoartmenral mistake evidence they do?
Patel resigned as Secretary for International Development after it was found she had had meetings with Israeli government officials, without informing the Foreign Office, whilst on a holiday (2017).
• February 2020: Sajid Javid resigned as he didn’t want to replace all his advisors with people that Johnson and Cummings chose.
Analysis:
-Patel was reappointed as foreign secretary in 2019
-demonstrates power of the PM as ministers likely to only face consequences when they lose backing of PM- may be due to power of whips.
Evidence for IMR becoming irrelevant in 21 st century
Lord carrington 1982 resigned as foreign office should have been clearer about response to arentina on Falkland they pretended it wass to liberate them.
Dugdale 1954 mistake in dept sos for agriculture
Carrington resigned due to errors made in his department- felt as if he was responsible- was held to account
Dugdale stated that he should take responsibility for the mistakes of his department as he would take credit for the successes within the department.
20th century less media attention less held accountable
Evidence IMR was never upheld
Lamont (1992)- removed sterling from the European Monetary System- faced criticism but did not resign until May 1993.
However Lamont did resign 8 months later causing turbulence for major government.
Examples of presidentialisation
2018: May launched air strikes on Syria without consulting parliament
May attempted to pass Pearce of legislation w more than 600 ststatory instruments allow executive ti make key decisions e out consulting parliament.
Prerogatives
However, statutory instruments are not always effective- October 2015- House of Lords voted against secondary legislation that would reduce level of tax credits paid to low-income families.
Examples against presidentialisation .
2003: Tony Blair held a vote in the House of Commons on the Iraq War
2013: David Cameron- Syria War vote- lost the vote and claimed that he would not use his royal prerogative powers.
Also
Increased media hold pms to account better
Elections have become more pm focused s
Rees-Mogg claimed in 2022 that:
• “It is my view that we have moved, for better or worse, to an essentially presidential system. Therefore the mandate is personal rather than entirely party, and that any prime minister would be very well advised to seek a fresh mandate (early election). Gordon Brown didn’t (2007) and that didn’t work; Boris Johnson (2019) did and that did work.”
• Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn was heavily criticised for his far-left beliefs- 2019 election- vote share dropped to 32%- lowest number of seats since 1935.
UKIP leader 13% vote. 2015
Evidence elections aren’t centred around leader because the pm is just the leader of the party.
2 2022: Boris Johnson resigned and was replaced with Liz Truss- not elected by the public
2022 truss resign3 replaces w Sunak also unelected
But leads to unstable gov
Pms are effectively checked like a president examples
Theresa May’s minority government suffered 33 defeats in the House of Common between 2017 and 2019.
1973: US Congress passed War Power Act- overriding earlier veto by President Nixon.
Pm has more checks and balances than president
a creature of Parliament”- Scalia
-1979: James Callaghan lost a vote of no confidence (311-310)- entire government resigned- caused general election.
-US president requires a 2/3 majority to be removed- president has never been impeached and removed from power.
Cab7het in uk also play more of a role us is j advisory
