Politics Paper 2 evidence bank Flashcards
Sources of the Constitution: Statute Law
Parliament Act 1911- Removed the HoL’s right to veto
Representation of the Peoples Act 1928, also known as the Equal Franchise Act
Scotland Act 1998, created the devolved Scottish government and executive with tax varying powers (one of the most significant constitutional pieces of legislation to be passed by the UK government)
Sources of the Constitution: Conventions
Salisbury Convention- HoL won’t oppose legislation stated in the winning party’s manifesto
Collective Ministerial Responsibility- constitutional convention within parliament systems that members of the cabinet must publicly support all government decisions even if they privately disagree with them, if a cabinet member wishes to openly object to a cabinet decision than they are obliged to resign from their position in cabinet
Allowing for the House to vote on deploying military troops (example of Royal Prerogative powers)
Examples of the HRA protecting citizens rights:
Article 8 of the ECHR (right to family life) used in AA V Secretary of State for Home Department (2022)- allowed convicted Nigerian Drug Dealer to remain in the UK due to British girlfriend and child
MS (Pakistan) V Secretary State for Home Department (2020)- SC ruled that the government has a duty to protect victims of human trafficking
ZXC V Bloomberg (2022)- ruled that Bloomberg had wrongly released an article about a business who was under suspicion of criminal activity (protecting individual rights over collective rights), the SC upheld the concept of ‘private life’
In 2018 the SC declared the 2005 Civil Partnership Act incompatible with the HRA, because it excluded heterosexual couples- government changed the law in 2019 accordingly
Devolution:
1997 referendums in Wales and Scotland
1998 Good Friday Agreement
2004 North East rejected a regional assembly by 78% in devolution referendum
1998 London voted in favour of a Greater London Mayor and assembly
2000 Local Government Act- allowed for the Local authorities to offer referendums over elected mayors
Scotland Act 2016 ‘devo-max’ powers were granted
2020 Internal Market Act- restricts the authority of the Scottish and Welsh Parliament (restricts their ability to make different economic and social choices to Westminster- maintains the idea of a Unitary Constitution)
Devolution: Scotland
1997 Scottish Referendum over devolution, 74.3% said yes to devolution and turnout was 60.1%
Scotland Act 1998 established the Scottish Parliament and granted several legislative powers to the Parliament- e.g local government, housing, environment, law and order, education, health and varying income tax
Scotland’s Freedom of Information Act 2002- grants scottish citizens the right of scrutiny over public bodies
Scotland offer free tuition for Scottish residents
Act also states that Westminster reserves the powers over foreign policy, defence, immigration and monetary policy- if Scotland had these it would become a nation state
Scottish Parliament Act 2016- vary income tax by up to 10p of the £1, determine abortion laws, determining speed limits, right to receive 50% of VAT gathered in Scotland
Act states that the Scottish Parliament is permanent and can only be abolished by a referendum
In 2016 52% of Scotland voted to remain, turnout= 84.6%
In 2015 General Election the SNP won 56 seats (50%) , and the Conservatives won 1 seat
In the 2017 General Election the SNP won 35 seats and the Conservatives won 13
2022 the SC ruled that the Scottish government needs the approval of Westminster to hold a second independence referendum
2023- Sunak blocked Scotland’s 2022 Gender Recognition Act using Article 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act because the act had potential consequences on how the law would operate in reserved areas (particularly equality opportunities law and the Equality Act 2010)
Devolution: Wales
1997, 50.3% said yes to devolution with a 50.2% turnout
Plaid Cymru in 1997 had 4 seats and in 2017 had 4 seats
1997 Wales were given administrative powers
Government of Wales Act 2006- recognised the importance of the executive by separating it from the legislature, gave Wales limited legislative powers
Referendum to be held on whether Wales should be allowed further devolved powers
2011 Devolved Powers referendum- 63.5% said they wanted an assembly that has the power to make primary legislative decisions, on a turnout of 35.4%
Wales Act 2014- control over a number of taxes and changed welsh assembly to the welsh government, given partial control of income tax without referendum
The Wales Act 2017- gave Wales the right to vary income tax by 10p to the £1, legislative powers over electoral arrangements, transport and energy. Welsh government now permanent part of the UK’s constitution
Devolution: Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland given its own Parliament in 1922 due to partition, lasted until 1972 when violence esculated under Heath
Good Friday Agreement 1998- power sharing assembly to represent unionists and nationalists
Devolution in Northern Ireland is inseparable from peace process
STV used to give Northern Ireland choice and make it harder for one party to dominate
Executive- leader = the leader of the largest party, deputy = leader of the second largest party
The assembly has been granted legislative powers on Education, policy, housing and transport etc
2002-2007 the assembly was suspended due to conflict
2007 was reopened following an agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein
2017, the assembly was suspended and direct rule imposed by Westminster
2022, the assembly was suspended again after DUP resigned in protest of the Northern Ireland protocol
May 2022 Sinn Fein voted the latest party for the first time- Michaell O’Neil- first ever nationalist minster
May 2023 Sinn Fein largest party in local elections- 31.2% of seats
House of Commons random evidence :
92% of Bills passed in 2019-21 were government bills
Only 1% of amendments suggested from opposition were accepted in Public Bill Committees
Over 500 statutory instruments were used during the Covid Pandemic to make amendments
2020 CoronaVirus Act was passed quickly and lacked efficient scrutiny- gave police extensive powers to break up demonstrations- e.g the 2020 Sara Everard Vigil
Since 2003 Iraq War- PM has allowed parliament to debate large scale military commitments
2013 Cameron proposed military strikes against Syria but did not happen after a parliamentary vote/debate
2018 May joined American led Syrian air strikes without the approval of Parliament
January 2019 May’s government was defeated by 432 vote on the Brexit deal offered to parliament
2019 Speaker John Bercow stood up against the executive when he stopped May from re-introducing her un-amended Brexit deal to the HoC
Government accepted 40% of recommendations from select committees
Julian Lewis criticised Johnson’s brexit policy after being elected as the chair of the parliamentary intelligence committee, he had the whip removed
2021 Johnson faced a rebellion of 98 conservative MPs voting against covid passes
2018- 8 conservative MPs voted against Heathrow expansion and defied the three lined whip as they were representing the interests of their constituents
March 2023 Sunak was grilled by the Liaison Committee on: Economic Issues, Migrant crisis and Windsor framework (on post brexit trade rules)
2019 Johnson avoided meeting with the Liaison committee so that he could concentrate on ‘delivering brexit’ - avoided meeting them 3 times
Parliamentary Backbench Business Committee- controls agenda 35 days a year
1922 committee= conservatve backbenchers, 18 member committee chaired by Graham Brady
House of Lords:
2018 Lord Steel proposed a debate on the killing of Palestines in Gaza Strip by Israeli forces- raised profile on these issues
2008- clauses in counter terrorism bill to enable terrorist suspects to be held for 42 days without trial was decisively defeated in the HoL
The way that the HoL voted in favour of a number of amendments to the EU withdrawal bill was especially important in focusing May’s government on a softer brexit
The HoL defeated the government 450 times between 1997-2010
HoL repeatedly advocated against compulsory ID cards- delayed and then scrapped under the 2010 coalition
2023 the Lords amended several parts of the strikes bill- e.g removed the clause that removes protection of unions if they do not take reasonable measures to comply with work notices
2023- the Lords opposed Retained EU law bill
2023 the HoL added an amendment to the Energy Bill to ensure that there is a regard for the government’s net 0 target
(this does not mean that these amendments will be accepted)
PM and the Executive (ministerial responisbility):
Ministerial Responsibility:
Failures of department etc: 2018 Windrush scandal Amber Rudd resigns, Estelle Morris 2002, education, resigning after literacy and numeracy targets were not met
Priti Patel resigns as International Development Secretary in November 2017 on having unauthorised meetings with Israeli Politicians
In 2022 Suella Braverman resigned from breaching the ministerial code by sending a senior and sensitive official document from her personal email account- reappointed 6 days later by Sunak
2021 Matt Hancock resigned after breaching covid rules in a scandalous affair, after uprising demanding he resign
Collective Ministerial Responsibility:
Strained by the coalition government- 2010 meant over certain issues the cabinet were allowed to disagree due to different manifestos (CMR was suspended over certain issues)
Because trident renewal and construction of new nuclear power stations were not in the coalition agreement CMR did not apply
Allowed Cameron to campaign against AV in 2011, calling it ‘undemocratic’
2016 EU referendum strained CMR due to the extent of disunity within the party, CMR had to be suspended to allow MPs to campaign on the remain and leave sides of the argument
Cabinet:
May appointed Johnson to her cabinet in order to bound him by CMR
May had to balance the cabinet with remain/leave supporters to ensure unity- appointed Amber Rudd (remain) and Johnson and Davies (leave)
Sunak had to appoint Hunt as Chancellor due to his economic expertise
Sunak had to appoint Braverman to the cabinet to appease the right wing of the party
2010 Cameron had to give up 5 places in the cabinet to the LibDems
In 2018 Hunt refused May’s attempt to demote him from the Department of Health and actually allowed him to expand his role to Health and Social Care Secretary
1997 Blair’s 179 seat majority meant that the cabinet was irrelevant ‘they’ll agree’
Blair introduced: PM’s strategy Unit and PM’s delivery Unit- challenged autonomy of cabinet ministers by setting department targets and monitoring their performances (Cameron abolished these roles)
Blair also introduced the Press Office under Allistar Campbell, he became prominent in government ensuring that Downing Street had more control over how many news stories were presented and responded to
May did not consult cabinet over 2018 Syria Air strikes
PM:
Cameron had to lose 5 seats in cabinet and accept an AV referendum in 2011 due to the coalition
Cameron’s resignation in 2016 demonstrates how PM’s cannot always control events
Failed to persuade parliament to support bombing president assad in 2013
Cameron associated same sex marriage with himself- not the cabinet
Blair: 2003 Iraq War took the case to public not cabinet and failed to advise the cabinet, before cabinet had even met Blair and Brown had decided to give interest raising powers to the Bank of England
The Supreme Court:
2023 only two female justices in the SC, Lady Rose and Lady Simler (who joined Nov 2023)
Constitutional reform act 2005
David Blunkett Home Secretary (2001-2004) criticised the SC for stopping him limiting the rights of asylum seekers
AA v Secretary of State (2022) ruling
ZXC V Bloomberg (2022) ruling
MS (Pakistan) v SoS (2020) ruling
2017 Gina Miller case- ruled in favour of Parliamentary sovereignty by ruling that May could not leave the EU with prerogative powers but needed the consent of parliament
2018 declared civil partnership act incompatible with HRA
2016- ruled that Chris Grayling had acted in ultra vires when using secondary legislation to amend the legal aid act
Executive and Parliament:
Thatcher in 1983 won the Falklands war and then increased her parliamentary majority to 144- neither Michael Foot or Neil Kinnock was able to effectively challenge her policies in the Commons
1997 Labour landslide victory of 179 meant that Blair was able to pass significant constitutional reform
2010-2015 meant that Cameron could survive even a significant backbench rebellion
2005-2010 Blair’s influence was in decline due to controversies surrounding the 2003 Iraq War
2004 Blair’s majority was reduced to 66 seats and he won with the support of just 35.2% of the electorate- as a result backbenchers became less loyal and Blair lost his first vote in 2005 over increasing the detention for terrorist suspects to 30 days
2019 May called a snap election- ended up losing her majority and had to rely on support from the DUP (supply and confidence agreement)
Constitution:
UK constitution remains unitary despite devolution:
The Scotland Act was used in 2023 to block the Gender Recognition Act passed in the Scottish Parliament.
Parliament Representation:
222 MPs (34%) are women in the House of Commons; 222 peers (28%) in the House of Lords
10% of MPs in the House of Commons are of BAME background; 6% of peers in the House of Lords
56 MPs (9%) are LGB* in the House of Commons
Party Whips:
removing party whip following a 3 line whip: Boris Johnson did this to 21 Conservative MPs who opposed his EU withdrawal Bill in 2019. Including senior figure Rory Stewart
Protracted debates on a third runway for Heathrow, led to resignations. In 2016 Zac Goldsmith resigned as a Conservative MP over the issue, and in 2018 Greg Hands resigned from the government. The Brexit debates resulted in eight MPs resigning from the Labour Party, and three from the Conservative Party. They formed a new party, the Independent Group for Change.
Private Members Bills:
From 2016-17, 25 out of 28 government bills that were introduced managed to gain royal assent, however only 8 out of 163 PMBs succeeded in the same way.
Discussing proposed government bills takes up over 1/3 of the commons time in any parliamentary session. The discussion of PMBs takes up less than 5% of the time.
Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat) = Carer’s Leave Act (2023): provides employment rights for those who juggle unpaid caring responsibilities with paid employment.
Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat) = Worker Protection Act (2023): prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and drive a culture change (substantially watered down by Lords to avoid exposing employers to costly lawsuits)
Select Committees: pt1
In 2016, when the department for Exiting the European Union was established by Theresa May, the chairman, Hilary Benn MP and the committee had the opportunity to question ministers on the impact of many different scenarios that could take place due to our departure. This helped the government decide what kind of exit would be the most beneficial for the country, and also plan for every outcome to ensure whatever happens, there are as few limitations as possible.
Frank Field was elected to become the head of the Work and Pensions Committee in 2015 and was re-elected in 2017. He has had years of experience, having been a politician since 1979, and had spent much of his career looking at issues concerning welfare and poverty. He was one of the only Labour supporters of Brexit and was well known for being rather straight talking. This confrontational nature is helpful, especially when pushing the government for answers and holding them accountable.
Studies from 2015 have estimated that 30-40% of committee recommendations end up as government policy.
Select Committees: pt2
The turnover of members within committees can damage the effectiveness of it. There was an 83% turnover during the 2010-2015 period in the Defense Committee. Replacements for these people might not be as informed or motivated as their predecessors.
The Exiting the EU committee that is chaired by Labor’s Hilary Benn is testing cross-party cohesion. In May of 2018, Conservative committee members John Whittingdale, Andrea Jenkyns and Jacob Rees-Mogg publicly criticised the committee for being too pro-remain. According to Jenkyns only 7 of the 21 committee members voted leave.
The committee invited Amber Rudd to give evidence for its inquiry into the Windrush Scandal. In her interview, she denied that the Home Office had targets for deportation of Illegal Immigrants. Leaked emails after this inquiry revealed that there were targets that Rudd was very much aware of. After this, she resigned from her post and took full responsibility.
Select Committees: pt3
Carrie Gracie was the editor for BBC China until 2018, where she resigned over gender pay equality. She was interviewed by the culture, media and sport select committee that month and the enquiry into BBC pay is ongoing. This case stands as an example of the responsiveness of select committees to current issues.
In June 2023, the Commons Privileges Committee found that PM Boris Johnson knowingly misled Parliament over Partygate; recommended his suspension. Johnson quickly resigned as MP rather than risk a recall petition. Police investigations and fines over Partygate are ongoing.
Public Account Committees: (responsible for overseeing government expenditure)- March 2024 report into the levelling up department found that, of £10.47bn in total funding from central government, which must be spent between 2020-21 and 2025-26, local authorities have been able to spend only £1.24bn from the Government’s three funds as of Sept 2023. Furthermore, only £3.7bn had been given to local authorities out of the total allocation by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) by December 2023
Scrutiny, questions: MPs (Daisy Cooper)
12th April 2024: Question for the Department of Health and Social Care - whether all 8 types of type 1 diabetes will qualify under their new NHS funding scheme- answered 19th April by Andrew Stephenson
12th April 2024: Question for Department of Work and Pensions- how many people received a Universal Credit migration notice in St Albans district; and how many and what proportion of these people submitted a new claim. SPECIFICALLY REPRESENTING HER CONSTITUENCY INTERESTS
No confidence (Parliament):
In January 2016, Theresa May’s government faced a vote of no confidence the day after they had suffered the largest ever government defeat in the House of Commons over their Brexit deal. She survived by a majority of 19.
In June 2022, A vote of no confidence was held by Conservative MPs against Boris Johnson. Johnson won the vote with the support of 211 Conservative MP’s, 58.8% of the total. Out of 359 Conservative MP’s, 148 (41.2%) voted against him
Parliamentary Scandals: (sex scandals)
Clive Lews (Labour MP) was accused of groping a woman at a party conference.
In June 2022 Neil Parrish MP watching “tractor porn” in the House of Commons
In April 2024, William Wragg MP stood down after he leaked personal phone numbers of a number of MP’s on Grindr