Case studies - Prime Minister and Cabinet Flashcards
Recent Prime Ministers - Boris Johnson
2019-Current
Conservative
Background:
- Upper class - attended Eton College and studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford
- Was a Brussels correspondent and a political columnist for the Daily Telegraph and was editor of the Spectator from 1999-2005
- Described to be opportunistic, populist and pragmatic
Political experience:
- Elected to parliament in 2001, and was a shadow minister under Michael Howard and David Cameron
- Elected Mayor of London in 2008 and resigned from the House of Commons, and re-elected as May in 2012
- In the 2015 election, he was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, becoming a prominent figure in the Vote Leave campaign or Brexit in the 2016 referendum
Previous Ministerial Roles:
- Appointed Foreign Secretary after the referendum from 2016-2018; resigned in 2018 in protest of May’s approach to Brexit and the Chequers Agreement
Following May’s 2019 resignation, he was elected Conservative leader and appointed Prime Minister
- Famously solved issues - COVID-19 Pandemic and Brexit withdrawal agreement
Reasons for leaving office:
- Currently holding office
Recent Prime Ministers - Theresa May
2016-2019
Conservative
Background:
- Grew up in Oxfordshire and attended St Hugh’s College, Oxford
- Graduated in 1977, worked at the Bank of England and served as a councillor for Dunsford in Merton
Previous political experience:
- After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to Commons, she was elected as MP for Maidenhead in 1997, and from 1999 to 2010 she held shadow cabinet roles
- Was chairwoman of the Conservative Party from 2002 to 2003
- Key political accomplishments - Pursued reform of the Police Federation, implemented a harder line on drugs policy and brought in additional immigration restrictions; oversaw the introduction of elected police and crime commissioners and the creation of the College of Policing and the National Crime Agency
Previous ministerial roles:
- Following the coalition formation in 2010, May was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities but gave up the latter role in 2012
- After being reappointed to Home Secretary following Conservative success in the 2015 election, she became the longest serving Home Secretary in over 60 years
- After Cameron’s resignation in 2016, May was elected Conservative Party leader and became the 2nd female Prime Minister, and is the only woman to hold two of the Great Offices of State
- She began processes of withdrawing the UK from the EU, surviving no confidence votes and a hung parliament but after her withdrawal agreement was rejected three times by parliament, she resigned and is now a backbencher
Reason for leaving office:
- Resigned - unable to get Commons support for her Brexit deal and pressure from the party
Recent Prime Ministers - David Cameron
2010-2016
Conservative
Background:
- Upper-middle class, educated at Heatherdown School, Eton College and Brasenose College, Oxford
Previous political experience:
- Worked in the Conservative Research Department between 1988 and 1993 assisting John Major before leaving politics to work for Carlton Communications in 1994
- Became an MP in 2001, serving in the opposition shadow cabinet under Michael Howard and succeeded Howard in 2005
- He aimed to rebrand the Conservative party
Previous ministerial roles:
- After 2010 general election negotiations, Cameron became Prime Minister as the head of the coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, becoming the youngest to hold office since the 1810s
- His premiership was marked by the ongoing effects of the late-2000s financial crisis, which caused a large deficit in government finances which he sought to reduce through austerity measures
- Passed the Health and Social Care Act and the Welfare Reform Act, oversaw the London 2012 Olympics and introduced large-scale changes to healthcare and welfare, enforced stricter immigration, reformed education and legalised same-sex marriage
- Praised for modernising the Conservative Party and decreasing the UK’s national deficit, but was implicated in the Greensill scandal and resigned following the Brexit referendum
Reason for leaving office:
- Resigned - led the losing ‘Remain’ campaign in EU referendum
Recent Prime Ministers - Gordon Brown
2007-2010
Labour
Background:
- Doctoral graduate of History from the University of Edinburgh, spent his early career working as a lecturer and a TV journalist
Previous political experience:
- Became MP for Dunfermline East in 1983
- Joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade, and later became Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1992
Previous ministerial roles:
- After the Labour victory of 1997, he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, becoming the longest-serving holder of that office in modern history
- He presided over the longest period sustained economic growth in British history, but it became too dependent on mounting debt
- In 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair, Brown was elected unopposed to replace him as Labour leader and Prime Minister
- Introduced rescue packages in 2008 and 2009 to help sustain banks during the global financial crisis, increasing national debt, passed the world’s first Climate Change Act and the 2010 Equality Act and lost popularity during the recession in 2008
- Following the 2010 election, he was defeated and saw the biggest loss in Labour seats since 1931 (lost 91 seats), being succeeded by David Cameron
Reason for leaving office:
- Election defeat
Recent Prime Ministers - Tony Blair
1997-2007
Labour
Background -
- Upper class upbringing
- His father was a barrister and academic
- Privately educated at Fettes College
- Studied law at St John’s College, Oxford
- Became a barrister after university
Previous political experience:
- Became MP for Dunfermline East in 1983
- Joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow
- Secretary of State for Trade, and later became Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1992
Previous ministerial positions:
- 1988 → Shadow Secretary of State for Energy
- 1989 → Shadow Secretary of State for Employment
- 1992 →became Shadow Home Secretary
- 1994 → became Labour leader after John Smith died suddenly
- Labour won the 1997 general election by a landslide majority of 179. Succeeding John Major to the role, he officially became Prime Minister on 2 May 1997.
Reasons for leaving office -
- Resigned in 2007
- As a combined result of the Blair–Brown pact, Iraq war and low approval ratings, pressure built up within the Labour Party for Blair to resign.
Recent Prime Ministers - John Major
1990-1997
Conservative
Background:
- Closest to working class of all recent PMs
- Born in 1943 in Surrey, but raised in Brixton.
- Did not attend uni after leaving school at 16
- He was educated at Cheam Common Primary School and then Rutlish Grammar School.
- Qualified as a banker
Previous political experience:
- In the early 1980s, he was involved in Labour politics in Hackney South and Shoreditch
- He put himself forward as a candidate for the Hackney council elections of 1982 in Queensbridge ward, a safe Labour area, but was not selected
- In 1982, Blair was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the safe Conservative seat of Beaconsfield but lost
- Elected as MP for Sedgefield in 1983
- Entered politics at a young age as an active Young Conservative in Brixton
- Stood as a candidate for Lambeth Council at 21 - he won the seat and became chairman of the Housing Committee
- He stood for Parliament twice in 1974 in St Pancras, losing both times before winning Huntingdonshire in 1979.
Previous ministerial positions:
- 1981 → became a ministerial aide
- 1985 → became the Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health and Social Security
- 1986 → Minister of State in the same department ^
- 1987 → entered the cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury
- 1989 → promoted to Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer
- He won the 1992 general election, with the Conservatives receiving the highest number of popular votes in history but with a smaller majority of 21
Reasons for leaving office:
- Internal Conservative Party divides on the EU, a number of scandals involving Conservative MPs (widely known as “sleaze”), and questions about his economic credibility are seen as the main factors that led Major to resign as party leader in June 1995.
Recent Prime Ministers - Margaret Thatcher
1979-1990
Conservative
Background:
- Relatively middle class upbringing
- Father owned a tobacconist’s and a grocery shop
- Won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls’
School (a grammar school)
- Studied chemistry at Oxford
- Worked briefly as a research chemist before becoming a barrister
Previous political experience:
- 1950 → she ran for parliament in the Labour-dominated Dartford and lost that year and again in 1951, but received more votes than previous Tory Party candidates.
Elected MP for Finchley in 1959.
- In 1975, she became the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK
Previous ministerial roles:
- 1961 →accepted an invitation to become parliamentary undersecretary in the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance
- 1970 → secretary of state for education and science
Reasons for leaving office:
- Resigned - failed to win Conservative leadership election
Current cabinet members - Rishi Sunak
- Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Responsible for raising revenue through taxation or borrowing for control of public spending, and is the chief financial minister and he is responsible for the work of the Treasury
- They decide - fiscal policy (including presenting the annual budget), monetary policy, setting inflation targets, ministerial arrangements and overall response of the Treasury to COVID-19
- Appointed in February 2020
- Previously Chief Secretary of the Treasury from July 2019 to February 2020, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local government from January 2018 to July 2019
- Elected Conservative MP for Richmond in 2015 and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from June 2017
Current cabinet ministers - Sajid Javid
- Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
- Responsible for the work of the Department of Health and Social Care, including the overall financial control and oversight of NHS delivery and performance, and oversight of social care policy
- Appointed June 2021
- Chancellor of the Exchequer from July 2019 to February 2020
- Home Secretary from April 2018 to July 2019
- Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from January 2018 to April 2018, and from July 2016 to January 2018
- Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from May 2015 until July 2016
- Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from April 2014 to May 2015 and previously was also Economic and Financial Secretary to the Treasury
- Member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee from June to November 2010, and first elected as a Conservative MP for Bromsgrove in 2010
Current cabinet ministers - Ben Wallace
- Secretary of State for Defence
- Controlling strategic operations and operational strategy, including as a member of the National Security Council, defence planning, programme and resource allocation, strategic international partnerships (US, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, NATO), nuclear operations, policy and organisations and strategic communications
- Entered politics as a Member of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, and was elected to the UK House of Parliament in 2005
- Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Veteran Cabinet Minister Ken Clarke as Justice Secretary
- Served as a whip and was the longest serving Security Minister
- Conservative MP for Wyre and Preston North in 2010 and for Lancaster and Wyre in 2005
- Minister of State for Security at the Home Office from July 2016 to July 2019
Current Cabinet Ministers - Elizabeth Truss
- Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs; Minister for Women and Equalities
- Overarching responsibility for the departmental portfolio and oversight of the ministerial team, cabinet, national security council (NSC), strategy, intelligence policy and honours
- Conservative MP for south west Norfolk since 2010
- Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education and Childcare in 2012
- Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from July 2014 to July 2016
- Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice 2016 until 2019
- Chief Secretary to the Treasury from June 2017 and July 2019
Current Cabinet Ministers - Nadine Dorries
- Secretary of State for Digital Culture, Media and Sport
- Overall departmental strategy, COVID-19 and appointments and honours
- Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care in May 2020
- Parliamentary under Secretary of State in the department in July 2019
- Elected Conservative for Mid Bedfordshire in May 2005
- Shadow Chancellor Home Secretary adviser and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer adviser
Current Cabinet Ministers - Grant Shapps
- Secretary of State for Transport
- Overall responsibility for the policies of the Department of Transport, cabinet responsibility for the Northern Powerhouse and oversight of departmental COVID-19 responsibilities
- Secretary of State for Transport on July 2019
- Minister of State at Department for International Development from May 2015 until November of 2015
- Elected Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield in 2005
- Shadow Housing Minister in 2007
- Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party in 2005
- Minister of State for Housing and Local Government in the Department for Communities and Local Government in 2010
- Privy councillor in 2010
- Minister without Portfolio at the Cabinet Office in 2010
