Powers of the prime minister of the United Kingdom

The powers of the prime minister of the United Kingdom largely derive from ancient royal prerogatives, historic and modern constitutional conventions, and increasingly from legislation. There is no single authoritative description of the powers of the prime minister of the United Kingdom, and they can be difficult to outline definitively.[1]

The UK government and prime minister (PM) operate with fusion of powers, that is, they have both executive powers and legislative powers. The PM also has a range of other powers, including powers over Parliament, powers of appointment, and powers over his or her political party.

The status and executive powers of the British prime minister means that the incumbent is consistently ranked as one of the most powerful democratically elected leaders in the world.

Definition of the role and its powers

Between 2011 and 2014, the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee conducted an inquiry into the 'role and powers of the Prime Minister'. In their report, they wrote:

When Lord Hennessy gave evidence to us, he commented: "the role of the Prime Minister is like the British constitution as a whole—you think you are getting close and it disappears into the mists." With the role itself difficult to define, it is not surprising that the powers of the person who fulfils the role are similarly problematic to outline definitively. Most powers exercised by the Prime Minister are not defined in statute and cannot be found in one place. In his book The Prime Minister: The office and its holders since 1945, Lord Hennessy stated: "Arguments have raged around the powers of the British Prime Minister for nearly 300 years."

Without a clear definition of the role of Prime Minister, the powers associated with the office have been able to evolve and accumulate, unhindered by statute, over hundreds of years...

There is no single authoritative source for what the role involves and the powers the Prime Minister can exercise.[1]

Documents describing the role and powers of the PM include:

  • From 1947 to 1948, the Cabinet Office prepared a paper titled 'Function of the Prime Minister and his Staff'.[2]
  • In 2002, a private member's bill was drafted to define the 'office, role and functions' of the PM,[3] but this was never passed.[4]
  • In 2011, the Cabinet Office published The Cabinet Manual,[5] setting out the main laws, rules and conventions affecting the conduct and operation of government, including a description of the role of the PM.
  • In 2011, Peter Hennessy gave a list of 47 functions, under eight headings, of the Prime Minister.[6]
  • In 2014, the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee produced a final report to their Inquiry, titled Role and powers of the Prime Minister.[1]

Executive powers

Appointing ministers
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (front, centre), and his September 1939 War Cabinet.

When commissioned by the sovereign, a potential prime minister's first requisite is to "form a Government" – to create a cabinet of ministers that has the support of the House of Commons, of which they are expected to be a member. The prime minister appoints all other cabinet members (who then become active Privy Counsellors) and ministers, although consulting senior ministers on their junior ministers, without any Parliamentary or other control or process over these powers. The prime minister decides the ranking order of all Cabinet members.

At any time, the PM may obtain the appointment, dismissal or nominal resignation of any other minister. The PM may implement a cabinet reshuffle, one famous example was the Night of the Long Knives (1962). The PM may resign, either purely personally or with the whole government. A prime minister is no longer just "first amongst equals" in HM Government; although theoretically the Cabinet might still outvote the prime minister, in practice the prime minister progressively entrenches his or her position by retaining only personal supporters in the Cabinet. In occasional reshuffles, the prime minister can sideline and simply drop from Cabinet the Members who have fallen out of favour: they remain Privy Counsellors, but the prime minister decides which of them are summoned to meetings.

The prime minister is responsible for producing and enforcing the Ministerial Code.

Royal prerogative powers

The prime minister formally kisses the hands of the sovereign, whose royal prerogative powers are thereafter exercised solely on the advice of the prime minister and Her Majesty's Government ("HMG"). The prime minister has weekly audiences with the sovereign, whose rights are constitutionally limited: "to warn, to encourage, and to be consulted";[7] the extent of the sovereign's ability to influence the nature of the prime ministerial advice is unknown, but presumably varies depending upon the personal relationship between the sovereign and the prime minister of the day.

Government policy

The prime minister generally co-ordinates the policies and activities of the Cabinet and Government departments, acting as the main public "face" of Her Majesty's Government. This is partly through the Cabinet Committees, a number of which the PM chairs[8] including the National Security Council.

Some Government policy decisions are of such significance that the ultimate decision of how to proceed is made by the prime minister rather than the relevant minister. For example:

Machinery of government

The PM is free to, at any time, create Government departments, merge them, re-name them, transfer responsibilities between them, and abolish them.[23][24][25]

The civil service

The Prime Minister of the day has held the office of Minister for the Civil Service since that office was created in 1968.[26] As such the PM has the powers over Her Majesty's Civil Service held by that position. These powers may be delegated by the Prime Minister to others.

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 states that a Special adviser to a minister in the UK government can only be appointed if the appointment has been approved by the Prime Minister.[27]

The Armed Forces
Prime Minister David Cameron visits British troops in Afghanistan.

Although the Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces is legally the sovereign, under constitutional practice the prime minister can declare war. For example, in September 1939 prime minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany.

Through the Secretary of State for Defence (a position which the prime minister may appoint, dismiss or even appoint themselves to – for example, in May 1940, prime minister Winston Churchill appointed himself Minister of Defence), as chair of the Defence Council, the prime minister can exert power over the deployment and disposition of the UK's forces. However, there is an emerging constitutional convention whereby the House of Commons is provided the opportunity to debate the use of the Armed Forces prior to their deployment.

The PM writes the Letters of last resort that orders the commanding officers of the four British ballistic missile submarines on what actions to take in the event of a nuclear strike destroying the British government.[28]

Legislative powers

Primary legislation

The prime minister normally has significant power to change the law through passing primary legislation, as the PM is, by definition, able to command a majority in the House of Commons. Therefore, the PM can normally gain House of Commons support for the their desired legislation (and House of Commons rejection of any undesirable legislation) - Government defeats in the House of Commons are unusual.

Primary legislation must also be passed by the House of Lords, and while Government defeats in the Lords are more frequent,[29] the power of the Lords to reject a bill passed by the Commons is restricted by conventions and the Parliament Acts. In extremis, as members of the Lords are appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the PM, the PM could appoint, or threaten to appoint, enough peers to the House of Lords who will support the legislation to force the Lords to pass it.[30][31]

The prime minister appoints officials known as the "Government Whips", who negotiate for the support of MPs and to discipline dissenters. Party discipline is strong since electors generally vote for individuals on the basis of their party affiliation. Members of Parliament may be expelled from their party for failing to support the Government on important issues, and although this will not mean they must resign as MPs, it will usually make re-election difficult. Members of Parliament who hold ministerial office or political privileges can expect removal for failing to support the prime minister. Restraints imposed by the Commons grow weaker when the Government's party enjoys a large majority in that House, or among the electorate. In most circumstances, however, the prime minister can secure the Commons' support for almost any bill by internal party negotiations, with little regard to the Opposition MPs.

The domination of Parliament by the government of the day has been called an "Elective dictatorship".

However, even a government with a healthy majority can on occasion find itself unable to pass legislation. For example, on 9 November 2005, Tony Blair's Government was defeated over plans which would have allowed police to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge, and on 31 January 2006, was defeated over certain aspects of proposals to outlaw religious hatred. On other occasions, the Government alters its proposals to avoid defeat in the Commons, as Tony Blair's Government did in February 2006 over education reforms.[32]

Secondary legislation
Main article: Delegated legislation in the United Kingdom

Ministers, including the prime minister and other ministers over whom the prime minister has the power of appointment and dismissal, are given the power to create and change certain laws (secondary legislation) by parent Acts of Parliament (primary legislation).[33]

Parliamentary powers

When Parliament meets

After a General Election, the date of the first meeting of a new Parliament 'is determined by a proclamation issued by the Sovereign, on the advice of the Prime Minister.'[5]

Under House of Commons Standing Order 13,[34] the prime minister can ask the Speaker to recall Parliament while it is on recess, who then decides.[35][36] For example, in August 2013, prime minister David Cameron asked the Speaker to recall Parliament to discuss the Syrian civil war, and the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.[37]

The power to close Parliament between sessions (prorogation) is a royal prerogative, that is, it belongs to the monarch. However, in practice the monarch exercises this power at the request of the prime minister.[38][39] (Formally it is exercised on the advice of the Privy Council.[40]) Though the prorogation of Parliament by PM Johnson in 2019 was overturned by the Supreme Court,[41] which ruled that his advice to the Queen to prorogue Parliament 'was outside the powers of the Prime Minister'.[42]

Until the passing of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA), the power to dissolve Parliament and call a General Election also belonged to the monarch, in practice exercised when the PM asked the monarch to do so (with a legal maximum of five years between Elections since the Parliament Act 1911, before that a maximum of seven years since the Septennial Act 1716). The FTPA removed this power from both the monarch and the PM, giving the circumstances in which a General Election can be held, and states 'Parliament cannot otherwise be dissolved'.[43] (Though this can be overridden by passing a separate Act, such as the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019.) The Conservative Party manifesto for the 2019 General Election included a commitment to repeal the FTPA.[44] A private member's bill to repeal and replace the FTPA, substantially restoring the position as it was before the FTPA was passed, was introduced to Parliament on 3 February 2020.[45]

Formerly, a prime minister whose government lost a Commons vote would be regarded as fatally weakened, and the whole government would resign, usually precipitating a general election. In modern practice, when the Government party has an absolute majority in the House, only loss of supply and the express vote "that this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government" are treated as having this effect; dissenters on a minor issue within the majority party are unlikely to force an election with the probable loss of their seats and salaries.

Parliamentary business

House of Commons Standing Order 14 states that government business has precedence (that is, priority) on every day it sits.[46] Therefore, most of the time the PM can control what is debated in the House of Commons, and when. Even with non-Government business, although the PM does not control the topics raised, the Government controls '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.'[47] This means it is difficult for Parliament to debate matters, and extremely difficult for Parliament to pass legislation, against the Government's (and PM's) will.[48][49]

Queen's Consent is required before certain types of bill can be debated by Parliament. The prime minister can advise the Monarch to withhold her consent, thus preventing Parliament debating the bill. For example, prime minister Harold Wilson used this power in 1964 and 1969 to prevent Parliament debating bills about peerages and Zimbabwean independence.[50][51]

Other Parliamentary powers

The Intelligence Services Act 1994, which established the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC), gave the PM the power to appoint the members of the ISC.[52] The Justice and Security Act 2013 reduced this instead to a power to nominate the nine members of the ISC,[53] and these nominees are then voted upon and appointed by Parliament. This is different to the Select Committees, whose members are elected. The PM has the power to agree a MOU with the ISC that sets out what other Government activities the ISC may oversee that are not covered in the Act.[54] The PM is able to control what operational matters are considered by the ISC.[54] The PM has the right to see any ISC report before it is laid before Parliament, and can require the ISC to exclude any matter from any of its reports if the PM considers that the matter would be prejudicial to the continued discharge of the functions of the intelligence services.[55]

From 1966, the Wilson Doctrine meant the telephones of Parliamentarians could not be tapped unless the prime minister chose to reverse this policy. Subsequent prime ministers have regularly confirmed that the ban remains in place. The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 codifies the prime minister's power over the interception of Parliamentarians' communications, as it requires that a warrant authorising the interception of communications of Parliamentarians (or members of devolved legislatures) may only be issued with the approval of the prime minister.[56]

Powers of appointment

The prime minister makes all the most senior Crown appointments, and most others are made by ministers over whom the prime minister has the power of appointment and dismissal. Privy Counsellors, Ambassadors and High Commissioners, senior civil servants, senior military officers, members of important committees and commissions, and other officials are selected, and in most cases may be removed, by the prime minister. The prime minister also formally advises the sovereign on the appointment of archbishops and bishops of the Church of England,[57] but the prime minister's discretion is limited by the existence of the Crown Nominations Commission. The appointment of senior judges, while constitutionally still on the advice of the prime minister, is now made on the basis of recommendations from independent bodies.

Peerages, knighthoods, and most other honours are bestowed by the sovereign only on the advice of the prime minister. The only important British honours over which the prime minister does not have control are the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle, the Order of Merit, the Order of the Companions of Honour, the Royal Victorian Order, and the Venerable Order of Saint John, which are all within the "personal gift" of the sovereign.

The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA) gives the PM the power to appoint the Investigatory Powers Commissioner and other Judicial Commissioners,[58] who oversee use of the IPA. The PM can require the Commissioner to make a report to him at any time,[59] and the PM can exclude from publication any part of the Commissioner's reports if the PM decides it meets certain criteria.[60]

The PM appoints the chairman of the Armed Forces' Pay Review Body,[61] and decides whether to implement its recommendations.[62]

Powers over their political party
Prime Minister Gordon Brown addresses the 2008 Labour Party conference

The prime minister is leader of his or her political party. In recent decades the prime minister has been either the Leader of the Conservative Party (UK) or Leader of the Labour Party (UK). As such the PM has the powers over their party given to the leader by their party's rules at the time.

International powers

The UK has considerable international soft power. Following the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018, a number of countries and other organisations expelled a total of more than 150 Russian diplomats in a show of solidarity with the UK, a result largely attributed to prime minister Theresa May.[72][73]

The Prime Minister was required to extend Brexit deadlines by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019 and European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019 (now both repealed).

Other powers and constraints
Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and David Cameron at Chequers.

In 1732, King George II offered to give 10 Downing Street to Robert Walpole, but he accepted on the condition that the gift was to the office of First Lord of the Treasury rather than to him personally.[74][75][76] Therefore the prime minister has the right to reside there, when they also hold that position (as has historically usually, though not always, been the case). While 11 Downing Street is the official residence of the Chancellor, in practice the Prime Minister and Chancellor may switch, with the prime minister occupying Number 11, though Number 10 remains their official residence.

The Chequers Estate Act 1917 gives the prime minister the right to use Chequers as their official country residence.[77]

The terms of the charitable trust, established in 1942, which owns Dorneywood, give the prime minister the right to use Dorneywood themselves or nominate, at their discretion, another Minister to be its resident.[78][79][80]

Under the Chevening Estate Act 1959, the prime minister can occupy Chevening, or can nominate a Cabinet minister or a lineal descendant of King George VI, or the spouse, widow or widower of such a descendant, to occupy it.[81][82]

Too, though undoubtedly fewer than the Secretaries of State, the Prime Minister does have some statutory functions, particularly in the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, giving them some discretion over the timings of general elections and a duty to set up a review committee in 2020.[83]

Contemporary theories of prime ministerial power

Varying and competing theories of the role and power of the contemporary modern prime minister have emerged in the post-war period, particularly in response to new styles of leadership and governance. The classic view of Cabinet Government was laid out by Walter Bagehot in The English Constitution (1867) in which he described the prime minister as the primus inter pares ("first among equals").[84] This view was challenged in The British Cabinet by John P. Mackintosh, who instead used the terminology of Prime Ministerial Government to describe the British government.[85] This transformation, according to Mackintosh primarily resulted because of the diminishing role of the Cabinet Ministers and because of centralisation of the party machine and the bureaucracy.[85] Richard Crossman also alluded to the presidentialisation of British politics in the Introduction to the 1963 version of Walter Bagehot's The English Constitution.[86] Crossman mentions the Second World War, and its immediate aftermath as a water-shed moment for Britain that led to immense accumulation of power in the hands of the British prime minister[86] These powers, according to Crossman, are so immense that their study require the use of presidential parallels.[86]

Churchill waving to crowds after announcing the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945

Presidentialisation thesis

The most prominent characterisation of prime ministerial power to emerge is the presidentialisation thesis. This asserts that the prime minister has become more detached from Cabinet, party and Parliament and operates as if the occupant of the office is elected directly by the people.[87] The thesis is usually presented with comparisons to the American Presidency. Thomas Poguntke and Paul Webb define it as:

"the development of increasing leadership power resources and autonomy within the party and the political executive respectively, and increasingly leadership-centered electoral processes."[88]

The thesis has been most popularised by Michael Foley, who wrote two books, namely, The Rise of the British Presidency, and The British Presidency: Tony Blair and the Politics of Public Leadership that are solely dedicated to the subject of presidentialisation in Britain.[89][90] Foley writes:

The British Prime Minister has to all intents and purposes turned, not into a British version of an American president, but into an authentically British president.[89]

The thesis has been widely applied to the premiership of Tony Blair as many sources such as former ministers have suggested that decision-making was controlled by him and Gordon Brown, and the Cabinet was no longer used for decision-making.[91] Former ministers such as Clare Short and Chris Smith have criticised the lack of decision-making power in Cabinet. When she resigned, Short denounced "the centralisation of power into the hands of the prime minister and an increasingly small number of advisers".[92] Graham Allen (a Government Whip during Tony Blair's first government) made the case in The Last Prime Minister: Being Honest About the UK Presidency (2003) that in fact the office of Prime Minister has presidential powers.[93]

The notion of presidentialisation in British politics has been criticised, however, due to the structural and constitutional differences between Britain and the United States. These authors cite the stark differences between the British parliamentary model, with its principle of parliamentary sovereignty, and the American presidential model, which has its roots in the principle of separation of powers. For example, according to John Hart, using the American example to explain the accumulation of power in the hands of the British PM is flawed and that changing dynamics of the British executive can only be studied in Britain's own historical and structural sense.[94] The power that a prime minister has over his or her Cabinet colleagues is directly proportional to the amount of support that they have with their political parties and this is often related to whether the party considers them to be an electoral asset or liability. Additionally, when a party is divided into factions a prime minister may be forced to include other powerful party members in the Cabinet for party political cohesion. The prime minister's personal power is also curtailed if their party is in a power-sharing arrangement, or a formal coalition with another party (as happened in the coalition government of 2010 to 2015).[95][96]

Keith Dowding argues, as well, that British prime ministers are already more powerful than the American presidents, as the prime minister is part of the legislature. Therefore, unlike presidents, the prime minister can directly initiate legislation and due to the context British politics functions within, faces fewer "veto players" than a president.[97] Thus, Dowding argues that adding to these powers, makes the prime minister less like presidents, and that what Britain is witnessing can be best explained as Prime Ministerialisation of British politics.[97] The work of Martin J. Smith,[98] importantly, runs contrary to these increasingly personalised conceptualisations of the modern prime minister, however. The Core Executive model asserts that prime ministerial power (especially of individual leaders, such as Thatcher and Blair) has been greatly overstated, and, instead, is both dependent upon and constrained by relationships, or "dependency linkages", with other institutions in government, such as members of the Cabinet or the Treasury. In this model, prime ministers are seen to have improved their institutional position, but rejects the notion that they dominate government and that they act, or have the ability to act, as Presidents due to the aforementioned dependencies and constraints 'that define decision-making in central government.' Smith emphasises "complex resource relationships" (or rather how formal and informal powers are used) and what resources a particular actor possesses. In this case, the prime minister naturally holds more resources than others. These include patronage, control of the Cabinet agenda, appointment of Cabinet Committees and the prime minister's office, as well as collective oversight and the ability to intervene in any policy area. However, all actors possess "resources" and government decision making relies upon resource exchange in order to achieve policy goals, not through command alone.[99] Smith originally used this model to explain the resignation of Margaret Thatcher in 1990, concluding that:

Government is not cabinet government or prime ministerial government. Cabinets and Prime Ministers act within the context of mutual dependence based on the exchange of resources with each other and with other actors and institutions within the core executive.[100]

Prime ministerial leadership as statecraft

Prime ministerial leadership has been described by academics as needing to involve successful statecraft. Statecraft is the idea that successful prime ministers need to maintain power in office in order to achieve any substantive long-term policy reform or political objectives.[101] To achieve successful statecraft leaders must undertake key tasks including demonstrating competence in office, developing winning electoral strategies and carefully managing the constitution in order to protect their political interests. Interviews with former prime ministers and party leaders in the UK found the approach to be an accurate part of some of the core tasks of political leadership.[102] Tony Blair was the first prime minister to be assessed using the academic framework and was judged to be a successful leader in these terms.[103] Assessments have been made of other leaders using the model.[104][105]

See also

References
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  50. "Ministers accused of exploiting royal veto to block embarrassing legislation". The Guardian. 15 January 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2020. It also emerged that Harold Wilson used the Queen's power to kill off politically embarrassing bills about Zimbabwe and peerages... The first came in 1964 in the case of the titles (abolition) bill, which was embarrassing to Harold Wilson's newly elected Labour government, which had a slender majority and did not want any legislative debate about the desirability of titles such as lordships and damehoods. The other was the Rhodesia independence bill of 1969 which sought autonomy for the African colony which Wilson's government was opposed to while it was in a state of rebellion.
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  60. "Investigatory Powers Act 2016 section 234(7)". GOV.UK. Retrieved 16 November 2020. (7) The Prime Minister may, after consultation with the Investigatory Powers Commissioner and (so far as the report relates to functions under Part 3 of the Police Act 1997) the Scottish Ministers, exclude from publication any part of a report under subsection (1) if, in the opinion of the Prime Minister,...
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  64. "Brown suspends ex minister Elliot Morley for non existent mortgage claim". The Times. 14 May 2009. Retrieved 1 December 2020. A former minister was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party today after it emerged that he had claimed £16,000 in Commons allowances towards a mortgage that he had already paid off.
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  67. "Boris Johnson readmits 10 Brexit rebels to Tory party". BBC. 29 October 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2020. Boris Johnson has restored the whip to 10 of the 21 Tory MPs who rebelled against him over Brexit last month.
  68. "There's a hole at the heart of the Government". Daily Telegraph. 6 October 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020. Every Prime Minister has the perfect right to appoint a close political confidante as party chairman – Theresa May did this with Brandon Lewis, and David Cameron did it with Andrew Feldman.
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  71. "Brown gets seat on Labour's NEC". BBC. 25 May 2005. Retrieved 29 November 2020. Tony Blair has given Gordon Brown a seat on Labour's ruling National Executive Council (NEC).
  72. "US leads international expulsions of Russian diplomats". Financial Times. 27 March 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2020. But in a significant diplomatic victory for Theresa May, the British prime minister who has spent two weeks rallying support for her claim that the Kremlin was behind the Skripal attack, the US was joined by every large Nato ally — including France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Canada — in announcing Russian expulsions.
  73. "Analysis: Worldwide expulsions of Russian diplomats a tribute to Theresa May's patient diplomacy". iNews. 26 March 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2020. But she can allow herself a small pat on the back for the remarkable achievement of lining much of the western world behind Britain to take action against Moscow. That 19 countries have come together to expel Russian diplomats in protest over the Salisbury attack is a tribute to her patient diplomacy. She also persuaded the European Union to issue a strongly-worded condemnation of Russia despite the reservations of several nations including Greece and Hungary.
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  75. "Sir Robert Walpole". gov.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Walpole lived in 10 Downing Street from 1735 having insisted that it become the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, rather than being given to him personally.
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Works cited
  • Barnett, Hilaire (2009). Constitutional & Administrative Law (7th ed.). Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge-Cavendish.
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