Electing a Leader

A person normally becomes Prime Minister either after winning a General Election, or after the Government party has elected a new leader to succeed a Prime Minister. Leadership of one of the main political parties is therefore a prerequisite for entering Number 10 Downing Street. This chapter examines exactly how the main parties have elected their leaders since 1902, setting the processes in their historical contexts, and explaining why the systems have been changed down the years. The Conservative Party did not have a formal system until after a major crisis in 1963; Labour has always elected its leader; but the systems which have been used have been altered for political reasons. Recent leadership elections, e.g. of Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and Jeremy Corbyn, are examined. The chapter also explains the ways in which an opposition party can get rid of a leader who doesn’t want to quit.

Prime Minister

This chapter looks at the ways in which a politician becomes Prime Minister after a General Election. The voting system is briefly analysed because it is through its operation that a Prime Minister has the constitutional right to hold office—but by a method that is flawed. The significance of party manifestos is examined. While an election that gives one party a majority in the Commons is a simple concept, hung Parliaments have caused constitutional and political problems in the past. Such results in 1910, 1923, 1929, and 1974 are explained. The formation of the Coalition Government in 2010 is analysed, and the effect of methods codified in The Cabinet Manual on the consequences of the 2017 hung Parliament is assessed in detail. The obligations of a sitting Prime Minister when a hung Parliament is returned are explored.

Prime Minister

In this chapter the various ways that a politician has become and can become Prime Minister solely through the actions of his or her party are analysed. A candidate for the premiership might be a clear heir apparent but bad luck or misjudgement by a premier might cause a party to choose someone else. A bad political blunder (such as David Cameron’s EU referendum that cost him the premiership) might open the door to a new leader, or there might be a party coup which ousts one Prime Minister and installs another (as, e.g. with Margaret Thatcher, or over a long period with Theresa May). The question of whether such a successor must seek an early General Election is explored. The rare instances of MPs supporting the formation of an emergency coalition, without an election, are analysed.

A Vacancy at Number 10

When Prime Ministers resigned they used to be replaced through informal means, often requiring the Sovereign’s personal discretion to choose the replacement. The secrecy in which this was done extended to matters such as a Prime Minister’s fitness for office, for example regarding serious illness. Prime Ministers rarely wish to retire wholly voluntarily: some resignations have been called retirements, but they were not retirements in the true sense of the word—circumstances left the premiers concerned with no option but to go. Death, serious illness, and ousting by the Cabinet or party have all led to vacancies. The two world wars resulted in six different Governments fighting them. Very rarely a coalition government has been needed to meet a peacetime national emergency.

So What Are the Rules?

The rules and processes that govern and guide how Prime Ministers lose office, and how Prime Ministers take it over, are many, scattered, uncodified, and therefore not easy to access. This is a constitutional lacuna for those who operate the system, and for citizens who wish to understand it. This chapter considers for the first time the arguments for and against reducing all that into a readable, coherent, and authoritative document. The issues that would arise if such a project were to be undertaken are set out. The chapter concludes with a unique draft code on choosing a Prime Minister. It sets out in direct language the rules about the office, the qualifications required, the right to be Prime Minister, a coalition government, deputizing for a Prime Minister, and resignation.

Minding the Shop

NGBetween the resignation (or death) of a Prime Minister and the formal appointment of a successor the office is vacant. How is the office discharged during an interregnum, or when a Prime Minister is away from the United Kingdom, or is ill, or on holiday? There is no consistency on whether there is a Deputy Prime Minister, and indeed sometimes it is difficult to say who in a Cabinet should take temporary charge if the Prime Minister is unable to act. The constitutional nature of prime-ministerial deputies is fully explored, including examples of Ministers who are designated—in one of a number of ways—to act for a Prime Minister. The constitutional and political difficulties which would be caused by the death of a Prime Minister are examined, and possible answers to those difficulties are set out.