PM and Exec Essay plans

Question 1

Execs important roles

Answer 1

• Proposing budgets

- Policy decisions/proposing legislature

Question 2

‘Royal prerogative powers

Answer 2

Powers historically held by Crown but transferred to PM/other ministers

Question 3

Why should royal preogative powers be abolished?

Answer 3

• Award honours
• Declare war and authorise use of armed forces
• Take action to maintain order in case of emergancy

Question 4

• Award honours

Answer 4

o Grossly abused by PM; May accused of using peerages to garner support for her deal, including nominating Eurosceptic Lord Hayes
Boris with John Woodcock - accused of sexual harrassment but voted for Brexit deal

Question 5

• Declare war and authorise use of armed forces

Answer 5

o Still no legal requirement for PM to consult MPs before taking military action; e.g., Conservative MPs emphasising May wouldn’t need approval to launch air strikes against Syria following chemical weapons attack there in 2018. Failure to enshrine in law necessity of consulting parliament (as Hague committed to as foreign sec. in 2013)

Question 6

• Take action to maintain order in case of emergency

Answer 6

o Sometimes decisive and speedy decisions must be taken e.g. special operations, such as the 2015 strike against Mohammed Emwazi in Raqqa, not pre-approved by parliament.

Question 7

Limitation on declaring war and authorising use of armed forces

Answer 7

o Following Iraq War disasters, informal convention by which MPs would be consulted in advance of military action. E.g., In 2014, MPs were consulted on - and supported - air strikes in Iraq against Isis

Question 8

What is guillotine

Answer 8

Allocation of tine motion
o Guillotine formally known as ‘allocation of time’ motion, enabling govt to curtail debate on individual clauses of a bill, more recently replaced by Blair with ‘programming motion’ which enables executive to set out in advance time limits for each stage in passage of bill.

Question 9

How does secondary legislation give exec more power

Answer 9

o Secondary legislation: law made without passing a new act o parliament, using powers crated by an earlier act e.g. 2016 statutory instruments to abolish maintenance grants for uni students and allow fracking in national parks. Increased use of statutory instruments called ‘HVIII clauses’, enabling evasion of parliamentary scrutiny

Question 10

How does patronage/whip powers + collective ministerial responsibility give exec more power

Answer 10

o Party leadership pressurises MPs to follow party line, with promise of government posts (patronage) and use of whips to ensure MPs toe said line. For example, use of three-line whips ensure MPs vote in a particular way lest the whip be withdrawn, and they have to sit as an independent. In a vote on Heathrow expansion in 2018, 8 Tory MPs defied the 3 line.

Question 11

Control over parliamentary timetable

Answer 11

o Executive controls most of parliamentary time available for legislation aside from 20 opposition days, 13 days for PMBs and 35 days for debates chosen by Backbench Business Committee; all other days, govt can use its majority to push through legislation. Government can also choose when the time allotted to the Opposition or backbench business is scheduled—meaning that they can simply choose to delay scheduling this time if they think something politically embarrassing might be debated.

Question 12

What are limitations on the executive

Answer 12

• Scrutiny work of SCs (see select committee essay)
• Increasing power of backbenchers (see backbenchers essay)
• Held accountable by people at election time
• Shift of power due to Brexit

Question 13

Example of executive held accountable by people at election time

Answer 13

o Regardless of govt power during Parliament, must have consciousness of following will of people or face removal; for example, in the run up to the 1997 election, the Conservatives gained a poor reputation for economic competence, such as with the ‘Black Wednesday’ crisis which the UK Treasury estimated the cost of at £3.4 billion. Voters reacted to this mismanagement of a key area of policy, and Labour won a landslide victory with 418 seats.

Question 14

• Shift of power due to Brexit

Answer 14

May incredibly weakened. Evident in Parliament taking control of legislative agenda – March 2019, MPs seize legislative agenda to hold indicative vote on Brexit, with Attorney General Geoffrey Cox saying any indicative motion passed by MPs would legally require the Government to follow Parliament’s instruction or risk breaching ministerial code – i.e. massive transfer of power from executive to Parliament

Question 15

individual ministerial responsibility

Answer 15

Concept ministers are responsible for running of their department and its policies, as well as for standard of own personal conduct; set out in doc.. called ‘Ministerial Code.

Question 16

• If large mistakes in terms of policy are made ministers are held accountable

Answer 16

o Amber Rudd dramatic resignation as home secretary, unable to account for unjust treatment of Windrush gen. migrants. Rudd in resignation letter said regarding targets for removing illegal migrants: ‘I should have been aware of this, and I take full responsibility that I was not’.

Question 17

Example of gov’t throwing civil service under the bus instead of holding individual ministerial responsibilities

Answer 17

Jonathan Slater - fired by Boris Johnson after exams fiasco even though its all Gavin Williamsons fault

Question 18

• Govt now large/complex so ministers can’t be expected to know about everything

Answer 18

o Rudd resignation reflects leaks in Guardian suggesting she did know about the targets, despite public denial.

Question 19

• Sense of responsibility leading to necessity to stay occasionally – flexibility of concept, determined mainly by media now

Answer 19

o Charles Clarke, Home Sec. challenged 2006 to account for movement of 1k foreign prisoners, freed without being considered for deportation. Clarke admitted his dept had ‘taken its eye off the ball’ but told BBC ‘I have a duty to sort this out’. Had offered Blair privately to resign, PM said continue. 10 days later, Blair sacked him in wider cabinet reshuffle with affair showing no signs of abating; so, seem more determined by media outrage and pressure than by actual convention
- Or just think of Gavin Williamson

Question 20

• Civil servants increasingly held to blame

Answer 20

Mark Sedwill cabinet secretary n chief security advisor blamed for Covid cock ups and apparently anti brexit

Question 21

collective ministerial responsibility

Answer 21

Convention that ministers must support all decisions of the govt in public, else resign; with discussions in Cabinet being confidential. If successful no-confidence vote, all resign, e.g. Robin Cook Iraq war 2003

Question 22

• MPs still sacked if breach of confidentiality

Answer 22

o Gavin Williamson then ousted from Cabinet May 2019, accused of leaking info about Huawei developing UK 5G network – but now calls for investigation, he says he’d be exonerated by independent commission. During commons session, Dominic Grieve said breakdown in collective cabinet responsibility partly at fault for the leak

Question 23

• MP’s still resign if they want not to toe party line, highlighting convention still taken seriously

Answer 23

Greg Hands with HS2

Theresa May dealt with 42 resignations over Brexit

Question 24

• Increasingly cases where necessity of it not applying otherwise it would split parties

Answer 24

Alternatively, May allowing free vote March 2019 on alternatives to her Brexit plan to avoid a rash of resignations by Europhile ministers (free vote for junior ministers, Cabinet members must abstain)

Question 25

• Weakness of govt in recent times

Answer 25

o March 2019, 5 May’s cabinet ministers have defied her orders in the no-deal Commons votes – in a massive breakdown of collective government responsibility. Greg Clark, David Gauke, Amber Rudd, David Mundell and Claire Perry abstained in a vote on a backbench move to reject a no-deal Brexit. Rudd, for example, not sacked, still Sec. of State for Work and Pensions

Question 26

Example of ppl getting cabiner roles bc of experience

Answer 26

o E.g. both Brown and Osborne served substantial apprenticeships as Shadow chancellor before taking over Treasury
- Rishi Sunak worked under Sajid, Sajid has econ degree and worked under Osbourne

Question 27

Other factors influencing pm cabiner choice

Answer 27

• Establishing PMs authority
• Rewarding loyalty, including key allies, whilst conciliating potential rivals
• Maintaining a balance between different factions within the governing party
• Meeting expectations of diversity

Question 28

Example of - Maintaining a balance between different factions within the governing party

Answer 28

o Best example Theresa May, ensuring to include prominent Leavers and Remainers after referendum. Thus, Cabinet now split into Remain Ultras inc. Amber Rudd/Philip Hammond, Leave Ultras including Geoffrey Cox and Michael Gove, key allies: May Ultras like Julian Smith and Brandon Lewis, and pragmatists who are continually shifting, e.g. Remainers who now support Brexit like Sajid Javid or Gavin Williamson

Question 29

Represents a ‘presidential govt’ i.e. PM too much power

Answer 29

o e.g. Blair and Brown 1997 choosing to place management of interest rates in hands of Bank of England – rest of Cabinet informed later. Under coalition ‘the quad’ (Cameron/Clegg/Osborne/Alexander) informal body meeting for decisions. In November 2018 Theresa May reported to have told cabinet to ‘stand by your diaries’ for Cabinet meeting to sign off on deal, Cabinet acting as ‘rubber stamp’ – politicshome
From Thatcher onwards, prime ministers and their aides have been possessed by a strong impulse to centralise control of both power and ideas at Number 10. This has left the building and its primary occupant overstretched, while the capacity of Whitehall departments has been “hollowed out” and the status of ministers “diminished”. British prime ministers only loom so large over the landscape because the rest of the cabinet has become so small.

Question 30

• ‘Presidentialisation’ of PM, with heavier media focus and personalisation of power

Answer 30

o Seen in television of leadership debates 2010 and 2015; More PMs projecting themselves as national leaders with a personal mandate e.g. Theresa May going to Brussel to meet Jean-Claude Juncker to ‘secure’ Brexit for UK
2.6£m brefing room built - Allegra Stratton - scrapped but highlighted the relationship gov’t want to have with media

Question 31

• Stronger international role (Showing presidential nature of PM)

Answer 31

o PM represents Britain at international summits like G7 meetings/EU negotiations, enhanced role in relation to defence and security issues. Still no legal requirement for PM to consult MPs before taking military action; e.g., Conservative MPs emphasising May wouldn’t need approval to launch air strikes against Syria following chemical weapons attack there in 2018.

Question 32

Isn’t presidential, Cabinet still powerful

Answer 32

• Cabinet approves govt decisions, conferring legitimacy on them
  o As seen in May’s cabinet backing her EU withdrawal agreement in November 2018 after a ‘long, detailed and impassioned’ (May) meeting or when Cameron’s cabinet in 2015 approved a 12-point motion to pave way towards extension of airstrikes on Islamic State in Iraq/Syria

Question 33

Guardian on the Cabinet style of BoriS

Answer 33

That is not surprising given the prominence inside No 10 of figures from the Vote Leave referendum team, headed by Dominic Cummings. That faction is obsessed with information warfare and is disrespectful of Whitehall, seeing departmental structures as relics of a dysfunctional system. Cabinet ministers appear often to be mere spokespeople, subservient to Downing Street advisers who write their scripts.

Question 34

Ideological makeup of cabinet

Answer 34

Andrea Leadsom and Esther McVey, who dared to pipe up at the cabinet table, were sacked.
- U can guess what way they swing - undying loyalty to Bojo

Question 35

• Need for Cabinet support as evidenced w/Thatcher and May

Answer 35

o March 2019, 5 May’s cabinet ministers have defied her orders in the no-deal Commons votes – in a massive breakdown of collective government responsibility. Greg Clark, David Gauke, Amber Rudd, David Mundell and Claire Perry abstained in a vote on a backbench move to reject a no-deal Brexit. Rudd, for example, not sacked, still Sec. of State for Work and Pensions

Question 36

Factors that effect PM - Cabinet relationship

Answer 36

• Wider Political and economic context
• Management skills of PM
• Use of Cabinet Committees and informal groups to take decisions
• Development of Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet office

Question 37

• Use of Cabinet Committees and informal groups to take decisions

Answer 37

o Increasing use of Cabinet Committees to take decisions, later ratified by full Cabinet; thru choosing membership of these committees/chairing them/having an ally chair, PM controls significantly. E.g. Theresa May choosing to control 3 committees, inc. one dealing with issue of exit from EU. Also increasing use of smaller informal groups, e.g. Blair and Brown 1997 choosing to place management of interest rates in hands of Bank of England – rest of Cabinet informed later. Under coalition ‘the quad’ (Cameron/Clegg/Osborne/Alexander) informal body meeting for decisions

Question 38

Theresa Mays advisors & cheif of staff

Answer 38

Nick Timothy, Fiona Hill

Question 39

How does political/economic context affect cabinet/pm relationship

Answer 39

o Thatcher’s standing improvement after 1982 Falklands War, whilst Brown undermined by decision not to hold general election/financial crisis; enabled Alistair Darling, chancellor, to refuse o take another post so Ed Balls could replace him. Brown couldn’t afford the resignation. Similar with Theresa May now, incredibly weakened by Brexit. March 2019, 5 cabinet ministers abstained in vote to reject no-deal against orders of May, inc. Rudd for example, not sacked, still Sec. of State for Work and Pensions

Question 40

Evaluate the extent to which the Cabinet is an important body (Cabinet is important)

Answer 40

• Given certain factors, Cabinet importance (political/economic context, leadership skills, committees/informal groups as above)
• Cabinet support still needed (as with Thatcher/May, above)
• Confers legitimacy
• During military periods

Question 41

Evaluate the extent to which the Cabinet is not an important body

Answer 41

• Given certain factors, Cabinet non-importance (political/economic context, leadership skills, committees/informal groups as above)
• Presidentialisation of PM (as above)
• Cabinet as ‘rubber stamp’ (as above)

Question 42

Control prime minster has is largely due to leadership style (factors)

Answer 42

• Management skills of PM

- Use of Cabinet Committees and informal groups to take decisions (see above too)

Question 43

Control prime minster has is largely due to what other features? (factors)

Answer 43

• Political and economic context during premiership
• Context of victory in election
  Three things determine whether they will be emperors or wimps: the nature of their personality, the quality of the people sitting around the cabinet table and the size of their majority. In Mr Johnson’s case all three dials are turned to “maximum imperial”

Question 44

• Management skills of PM (Major

Answer 44

o Major acting decisively to replace unpopular poll tax with council tax, creating progress towards peace in NI (‘1993 Downing St Declaration’) and handling Gulf War 1991 effectively; but after joining Exchange Rate Mechanism, Black Wednesday 1992 crisis which the UK Treasury estimated the cost of at £3.4 billion, leading to reputation for economic incompetence. Also spent a lot of time on crisis management with a number of ‘sleaze’ scandals. One aim ‘Citizen’s Charter’ to make public services more accountable, but failed to capture public imagination; overall, Major reacting to events rather than driving forwards an agenda

Question 45

• Use of Cabinet Committees and informal groups to take decisions (Under Major)

Answer 45

o Major: Collegial style of Cabinet management, with more discussion, lack of ideological commitments but Cabinet not respecting/fearing him as with predecessor, culminating in uncontrolled divide between Eurosceptics and Europhiles; Major had to seek concessions e.g. opt-out from joining Eurozone/’Social Chapter’ but continued revolts, and divided Cabinet, impression of weak leadership

Question 46

• Use of Cabinet Committees and informal groups to take decisions (Under Boris)

Answer 46

More presidential
In February, it was a row over who got to pick advisers which led to the summary departure of Javid. Rishi Sunak’s rapid elevation came at the price of accepting a joint No 10/No 11 adviser unit, and now remaining spads know that they serve at the pleasure of No 10.
While Margaret Thatcher had big figures such as Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson (who eventually assassinated her) around her cabinet table, and Tony Blair had his nemesis Gordon Brown, this Churchill wannabe has nobody who can stand up to him. He is not so much primus inter pares (Walter Bagehot’s description of a prime minister) as primus inter poodles. His only powerful colleague, so far, is his chief strategist and consigliere, Dominic Cummings, whom he can sack at will.

Question 47

• Political and economic context during premiership

Answer 47

o Major: significantly weakened Black Wednesday crisis which the UK Treasury estimated the cost of at £3.4 billion, leading to reputation for economic incompetence. Also spent a lot of time on crisis management with a number of ‘sleaze’ scandals and presiding over divided Cabinet and party over Europe. All these factors greatly weakened his control

Question 48

• Context of victory in election ( major)

Answer 48

o Major: Unexpectedly came into power, taking over Thatcher; then won with a small majority of 21 seats in 1992. Initial method of takeover and then small majority meant little mandate and weak control, fraught with issues leading to his rival Blair winning a crushing 179 seat majority.

Question 49

Evaluate the extent to which Prime Ministers have successfully controlled events and policy during their premiership. (Major

Answer 49

• Successful control - decisiveness with poll tax and Gulf war
• Successful control - progress towards peace in NI
• Failure of control - with divided party over Europe
• Failures of control - having to deal with ‘sleaze’ and weakened by collegial cabinet
• Failure of control – in economic competence, especially with Black Wednesday

Question 50

Evaluate the extent to which Prime Ministers have successfully controlled events and policy during their premiership. (Major (Blair

Answer 50

• Successful control – reviving NI peace process
• Successful control – social reform
  o Self-governing city academies to replace state schools, foundation hospitals, tuition fees created, but also ‘labour’-like measures: min. wage, free nursery places, ‘Sure Start’ centres, introduction of civil partnership for same sex couples
• Successful control – centralisation of cabinet, informal meetings, media
• Successful control – modernising constitutional reforms
• Failure of control – some social policy frustrated
  o Opposition of vested interests within the public sector, ‘scars on his back’
• Failure of control – policy in Iraq undermined
• Failure of control – limited by Brown