Chapter 14

Gazing at the Summit: The PM and Cabinet

In This Chapter

Taking in the prime minister

Looking at cabinet responsibilities

Meeting the bigwig cabinet members

Moving things around in the cabinet

This is the chapter to read if you want to know about the real bigwigs in British politics – the ministers and the prime minister – whose decisions affect your daily life, propel the economy into boom or bust, and even send soldiers to war.

The prime minister and cabinet are at the very pinnacle of British politics and in this chapter I explain why they’re so powerful and how they run the government day in, day out.

Going Straight to the Top: The Prime Minister

Whoever is prime minister (PM) is the most important person in British politics: the big cheese, the head honcho, the main man or woman – you get the idea!

The PM wields so much power for a whole host of reasons, including that the PM

• Leads the biggest political party in the House of Commons, the main law-making body in the country
• Gets to appoint ministers who perch at the top of all the main branches of government, called ministries, which I talk more about in ‘Concentrating on the Cabinet’, later in this chapter
• Gets to decide which ministers sit in the cabinet, the key decision-making body of government
• Appoints junior ministers and has a say in senior civil service appointments
• Usually takes the lead in forming government policy, and when disagreements occur among ministers or MPs, makes the final call
• Oversees how government is organised, and can actually set up or abolish whole government departments
• Chairs meetings of the cabinet, where the government takes key policy decisions and sets the legislative programme for parliament
• May not be the head of state – that’s the monarch’s role – but represents the country when visiting other states and is very much the nation’s leader

Much of the PM’s power derives from the fact that he also leads the biggest political party in the House of Commons. The role of party leader is also very powerful (check out Chapter 8 for more on the inner workings of political parties).

As you can probably imagine, just one of the many jobs a PM has to do would be more than enough for most individuals to cope with. The PM often has to work long hours and is always in the public eye, with his slightest move causing comment. In some ways, being the PM resembles being a major celebrity but without the option of selling your wedding photos. Seriously, though, the job of PM is exhausting and deeply taxing and a few of the people who reach this pinnacle aren’t always up to the task.

The PM lives and works in 10 Downing Street. From the outside, Number 10 seems little more than a grand Georgian terrace house – which it is – but behind its famous black door exists an inordinate amount of office space. In fact, the PM’s residence resembles Doctor Who’s TARDIS – small on the outside, cavernous on the inside. The PM doesn’t live and work at 10 Downing Street full time. As a perk of the job, he gets the use of a country estate called Chequers, at which to entertain visiting world leaders.

Getting to be the PM

Only one person can be PM at any one time and the job doesn’t change hands that often. In fact, since 1979 we’ve had only five prime ministers. With the thousands of politicians around the UK, the odds of becoming PM are very long indeed. For well over a century all the PMs have followed this path:

1. Get elected as an MP. All PMs for the past century have been members of parliament.
2. Get elected party leader. It’s a constitutional convention that only a party leader can be the prime minister.
3. Get a House of Commons majority. The monarch asks the leader of the party with the majority of seats in the House of Commons to form the government and be prime minister. No majority, no keys to number 10!

The monarch appoints the prime minister, but in reality the monarch has little choice. By a convention of Britain’s unwritten constitution, the monarch must appoint a PM capable of rallying a majority of MPs in the House of Commons. As such, the leader of the largest political party in the House of Commons usually gets the job.

By constitutional convention, PMs must also be Members of Parliament (MPs) because they’re supposed to have a majority in the House of Commons. The last time a member of the House of Lords was also PM was way back in 1895, when Lord Salisbury was appointed to the role.

Usually, the PM leads the political party that has the majority of MPs in the House of Commons. However, in 2010 no party achieved an overall majority. As a result, the leaders of the two biggest parties, by the number of seats gained at the election, negotiated with the leadership of the third biggest party – the Lib Dems – for support in forming an effective government. After five days of tense negotiation, the Lib Dems said that they would support the Conservatives, led by David Cameron. This support meant that Cameron could secure a majority in the Commons and the queen then asked him to form the coalition government.

Gauging whether the PM is really ‘first among equals’

The PM is supposed to be primus inter pares, which means ‘first among equals’. The PM is first because he heads up the government and is the face that the electorate knows best, but equal because he chairs the cabinet rather than telling it what to do.

In theory, each member of the cabinet has an equal say in what policy the government pursues. But theories don’t always work out in reality, and despite the pretty Latin phrases and the idea of equality, the power that the PM wields – particularly to hire and fire government ministers – means that he’s far more than an equal. In fact, usually what the PM says goes, and any minister wishing to oppose him had better have his arguments well stacked up.

Limiting the power of the PM

Some PMs take a dictatorial approach to the job but even they know that they’re not untouchable. The power of the PM is built on powerful pillars, but through political misjudgements or bad luck these pillars can crumble away over time and the power base of a PM can erode. In fact, even the most successful PMs last little more than a decade in modern times and many have to high-tail it out of 10 Downing Street much sooner. Someone once said that all great political careers end in failure and that’s especially true for the PM.

Some of the ways the PM can have their power constrained or simply find themselves out of a job include

• Losing an election: The PM is always the head of a political party, and if that party does badly at an election then it loses its majority in the House of Commons, which means that the monarch asks whoever leads the new majority party to form the government. In other words, the PM is turfed out along with the government.
• Losing party support: Much of the PM’s power comes from being the head of a political party. However, when it comes to leaders and political parties, power is a two-way street. If the PM doesn’t follow policies popular with the rank and file of the party, or is seen as ineffective or a bad leader, then he loses support. Ultimately, a party can even replace the leader in an internal ballot. If this happens, the PM loses his job automatically.
• Losing cabinet confidence: The PM may be the head honcho in cabinet and have the job of hiring and firing ministers but these ministers have their own following in the party, media and wider general public. In short, certain ministers are harder for the PM to sack or ignore than others. If enough of these minsters gang up on the PM then the person being turfed out of office may well be the PM. Although they’re super-powerful, PMs have to govern with the consent of their cabinet colleagues and, more generally, the MPs and members of the party they head up.

All the main political parties have a mechanism for getting rid of their leader. Doing so often involves a substantial minority of MPs proposing that someone else should be leader. If this candidate has enough support, a leadership election takes place. Very few party leaders survive a serious leadership challenge.

Sometimes MPs want to give their leader a warning to let him know that they’re unhappy with his behaviour. In the past, this warning has led to a leadership election and a stalking-horse candidate running for the top job. A stalking horse isn’t a very serious contender because he doesn’t have enough support and experience. Instead, the role is to galvanise opponents of the party leader into taking action.

Concentrating on the Cabinet

The cabinet is a group of the top politicians from the ruling political party and its members are called government ministers. The PM can bring anyone he wants into the cabinet but generally he selects ministers from the ranks of MPs of the governing party in the House of Commons. The odd lord finds his way into the cabinet but these days convention dictates that it’s best if elected politicians rather than peers take the top jobs in government.

The job of the cabinet is to decide what policies the government will pursue, and after it decides on a policy it’s up to whichever minister is overseeing the pursuit of the policy to report back to the cabinet on progress. The PM chairs the cabinet and, with the help of the cabinet secretary and senior civil servants, he decides what the cabinet discusses at its weekly meetings. The number of politicians sitting in the cabinet tends to vary. Not all ministers sit in the cabinet, but certain officials, such as chancellor of the exchequer or health secretary, automatically sit in the cabinet by constitutional convention. Ultimately, though, the PM decides which ministers sit in on cabinet meetings.

Occasionally, a PM wants to give an individual a seat in cabinet – presumably because the PM values that person’s advice or acumen – but all the ministries already have a minister in place. Well, that’s not a problem! The PM is free to appoint who he likes to the cabinet and can simply bestow the title of minister without portfolio, which basically means a minister without a government department.

The cabinet has its own secretary. Now this person’s job isn’t taking notes, booking meeting rooms and ensuring all the ministers have sufficient tea or coffee. Cabinet secretary is one of the most senior civil service jobs in the country. The cabinet secretary runs the Cabinet Secretariat, which provides vital administrative support services for cabinet committees, ensures decisions are consistent across government, monitors how well ministries are following through on government policy, and circulates minutes from meetings of cabinet and cabinet committees.

Governing the UK is a massive undertaking, with literally thousands of civil servants based in Whitehall alone. In order to ensure that ministries don’t go stepping on each other’s toes and contradicting one another, the Cabinet Office exists. The role of the Cabinet Office is to co-ordinate government action across ministries. In the day-to-day running of the UK government, the Cabinet Office is very important.

Taking in the great offices of state

The PM isn’t the only big mover and shaker in cabinet; several other posts within government carry with them enormous power. Some ministerial jobs carry more clout and power than others.

At the top of the tree is the PM, of course, but just below this office are other ministers whose jobs are equally historical and whose positions are important. Here’s a rundown – PM aside – of the great offices of state:

• Chancellor of the exchequer: The chancellor is second in importance in the UK government only to the PM. This job involves setting government economic policy and ensuring that public finances work. The chancellor presents a Budget (spring) and Pre-Budget report (autumn) to MPs in parliament that change tax rates and set government spending. The chancellor also runs the Treasury, which sets the spending budgets for all the other departments of state. And, in politics as in daily life, power often rests with whoever controls the purse strings.
• Foreign secretary: This person oversees foreign policy. The job involves lots of international travel and diplomacy and is often seen as the glamour gig in the UK government. The foreign secretary often acquires a high public profile and he has control over a big budget and gets to meet world leaders face to face.
• Home secretary: This minister is responsible for policing, national security, internal affairs, immigration and citizenship. In recent years the job of home secretary has been something of a poisoned chalice, with successive ministers being sacked or resigning. In fact, the performance of the Home Office as a whole has come under such close scrutiny that in 2008 the PM decided to remove some of its powers – such as control of the prison service – and give it a newly formed justice ministry. Nevertheless, people still see home secretary as a top government job.
• Deputy prime minister: A relatively recent advent, dating back to only the 1990s. The DPM fills in for the prime minister when he’s out of the country or on holiday, chairing cabinets and even attending parliament and answering Prime Minister’s Questions. Although important, the post wasn’t as crucial to the running of government as the others in this list until 2010, when the coalition was formed. Then the leader of the Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, took on the DPM role, which gave the post added impetus and importance. The role of DPM is here to stay and whoever occupies the role sits near the top of the cabinet tree.

Observing the big beasts of the cabinet jungle

Even the PM has to tread carefully around certain cabinet members. These figures carry political weight – what they say and do normally attracts considerable attention in the media and among commentators, who refer to them, not entirely flatteringly, as the big beasts. A minister’s big beast status depends on whether he

• Occupies one of the great offices of state such as chancellor of the exchequer or foreign secretary (I cover the great offices of state in the preceding section)
• Is popular in the party, with a personal following among MPs and party members
• Has wide appeal among the public and is well liked or seen as good at his job

A minister can hold high office but not be a big beast because he doesn’t have a high public profile or wide popularity in the party – and the converse is also true. Have a high office, a strong public profile and a following in the party, however, and you’re definitely a big beast.

Sensible PMs try to keep big beasts on board by involving them in decision-making and consulting them. Collective cabinet responsibility, which I describe in the upcoming section ‘Explaining collective cabinet responsibility’, helps keep big beasts reined in as well.

The biggest beast in Tony Blair’s cabinet was undoubtedly his chancellor, Gordon Brown. Brown had a lot of support among party members and was seen widely as being a capable chancellor, so Blair let him have an enormous say in party policy, particularly over domestic matters, while Blair kept tight control of foreign affairs and diplomacy. Brown’s power was so great that it was even likened to having two PMs. However, the two men didn’t see eye to eye, and their advisers often bickered and briefed against the other side. In fact, in the Labour Party of the late 1990s and 2000s MPs and advisers were often referred to as either being ‘Blairites’ or ‘Brownites’. Brown eventually replaced Blair as PM in 2007.

Looking down the political food chain to other ministerial posts

Outside of the great offices of state around another 30 ministers attend cabinet meetings, which are held once a week on a Thursday. Some of these ministers are called cabinet ministers because they’re expected to attend every meeting. These include

• Health secretary
• Education secretary
• Defence secretary
• Leader of the House of Commons
• Leader of the House of Lords
• Work and pensions secretary
• Justice secretary
• International development secretary
• Transport secretary
• Secretary for business, innovation and skills
• Secretary for culture, media and equalities
• Secretary for environment, food and rural affairs
• Secretary for communities and local government
• Chief secretary to the Treasury
• Secretary of state for Wales
• Secretary of state for Northern Ireland
• Secretary of state for Scotland
• Secretary for the Cabinet Office
• Secretary for energy and climate change

In addition, several cabinet posts exist that may not mean that much – chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and parliamentary secretary to the Treasury come to mind. PMs often give these positions to the people who act as chief whips for the party in the Commons or House of Lords.

Other ministers attend cabinet meetings when those present are likely to discuss their particular area of concern, either directly or indirectly. The cabinet secretary lets the individual minister know when he’s expected to attend cabinet meetings. For example, the housing minister isn’t actually a cabinet minister, but whenever a matter likely to touch on housing is on the cabinet’s agenda, along comes the housing minister.

Apart from the housing minister, the following ministers get to attend cabinet meetings occasionally:

• Minister for universities and science
• Minister for women
• Attorney general

Assuming Cabinet Responsibilities

A seat in cabinet comes with certain responsibilities – work that the minister is expected to perform for the government. The PM decides who will and won’t be a member of the cabinet, and if the minister fails to live up to the responsibilities, the PM’s likely to sack or demote him at cabinet reshuffle time.

Explaining collective cabinet responsibility

Ministers are supposed to act according to the catchily named ministerial code, which states that ‘decisions reached by the cabinet are binding on all members of the government’. In short, this means that ministers can disagree with each other as much as they want behind closed doors – and they often do – but after the collective voice of the cabinet has spoken (if the cabinet’s taken a vote or reached a majority agreement), it’s time to get into line.

This concept of public unity is called collective cabinet responsibility and is meant to ensure the government seems united in the eyes of the electorate and speaks with one voice. It supposedly makes government action more effective as well.

Publicly stating disagreement with a decision reached by cabinet colleagues is a ministerial cardinal sin. A minister who states that he doesn’t like a policy or new bill usually resigns from the cabinet or, in some cases, is sacked by the PM.

Collective cabinet responsibility is close to the heart of PMs because it means that the government can be seen as acting in unison and the electorate likes to think it’s governed by people who have a clear purpose. However, often collective responsibility, while not fully breaking down, does become a little frayed. Ministers don’t publicly disagree with cabinet policies, but they get friends and advisers to talk to journalists to let them know what their real feelings are. The media then reposts this dissent but attributes it to an anonymous source. (This is called briefing and is an everyday occurrence at Westminster.)

Taking in individual responsibility

As well as a responsibility to their colleagues, cabinet ministers are also responsible for their own ministry. A minister is thus expected to do the following:

• Explain before parliament the actions of the ministry. A minister may do so in debates in the chamber of the House of Commons or in front of a select committee – refer to Chapter 13 for more on debates and committee meetings.
• Take responsibility when senior civil servants within their own ministry make mistakes. Ultimately, a minister may resign his job because of the mistake of an adviser or civil servant.

In recent times the convention that ministers are responsible for the actions of their civil servants and that, ultimately, they should resign if these mistakes come to light has gone a little by the wayside. Under PMs Tony Blair and Gordon Brown ministers have no longer resigned under such circumstances, although Conservative leader David Cameron has argued that they should.

Ministers can’t know everything that’s going on in their department. In fact, they leave even some major decisions to senior civil servants.

Civil servants are supposed to be both independent and permanent employees – therefore surviving changes of government.

Working Behind the Scenes: Cabinet Committees

Many of the big government policy decisions are no longer taken by full meetings of the cabinet. Instead, the PM selects a few ministers – often no more than four or five – to sit on small committees whose job it is to form government policy and then present their work to the PM and the cabinet. Obviously, these cabinet committees are hugely important.

The PM forms committees because they work more quickly than the full cabinet, mainly as a result of involving far fewer members, and they’re quick to set up and abolish, making them very flexible. At any one time generally between 8 and 15 cabinet committees are operating to review important policy areas.

Some ministers sit on several committees at once. Over some topics, the PM has face-to-face meetings with a minister to thrash out policy in his area. This approach was a popular method of government for Labour PM Gordon Brown.

Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher was known for her – how shall I put it? – combative leadership style (put simply, she liked a tear-up). She regularly met with ministers face to face to discuss policy and was noted for holding and espousing strong views at cabinet meetings. Thatcher had a very black-and-white view of politics, and she famously used to ask even her own cabinet colleagues, ‘Are you one of us?’, meaning did they hold similar convictions to her. Eventually, fed up with her dictatorial style, Thatcher’s own MPs and ministers rebelled and forced her out of office in 1990.

Shaking Up the Cabinet

Politics can be brutal, particularly near the top of government. Becoming a cabinet minister can take years of hard work and political manoeuvring, but careers can be cut short on the decision of the PM or through having to resign. In addition, new politicians move into cabinet and ministers move into different jobs, all at the behest of the PM. As a result, the membership of the cabinet rarely stays the same for very long.

Some suggest these movements are disruptive to the operation of government and that we need politicians in post for a long time so that they can see government policy through properly (and some cabinet members do stay in the same job for years on end). Others suggest that disruptions reduce complacency – with no job-for-life mentality – and keep ministers on their toes.

Civil servants, rather than ministers, do the day-to-day work of government . So in some respects, which politician is actually the minister may not matter a great deal.

Falling on their sword: Ministerial resignations

Political careers that look destined for the top crash and burn in double-quick time. Even at the top of government, powerful ministers can be happily ensconced in their ministries one minute and out of office and on the backbenches in the Commons the next.

This fall from grace can be sparked by a sacking from cabinet by the PM – see ‘Shifting the seats: Cabinet reshuffles’ next – but it can also result from the minister resigning.

Now, unlike you and I, who probably resign to go on to a better job elsewhere, ministers who resign do so because of a political or personal issue that dictates that they simply have to go. Some ministers fall on their own sword – resign of their own accord – and others are persuaded to do so by the PM or his advisers.

Ministers take the long walk off a very short political pier for three reasons:

• Policy differences: Ministers are bound by collective cabinet responsibility and are supposed to go along with the decisions made by the cabinet. However, sometimes they just can’t do it and as a result resign their post.
• Mistakes: Ministers make errors – sometimes huge ones – and in such instances opponents often call for their resignation. These days ministers are more likely to try to sit tight, but occasionally the media furore and public anger at the boob is so great that the minister in question feels that resigning for what he often says is ‘the good of the party’ is best.
• Scandals: Here’s the juiciest reason of the lot (I explore a host of these tabloid fodder stories in Chapter 24). The minister becomes embroiled in a scandal involving, say, some abuse of office, deception or sexual peccadillo, and as a result he feels he’d best resign for ‘the good of the party’.

Shifting the seats: Cabinet reshuffles

Once a year, generally, the PM looks to bring new people into the cabinet and get rid of those he sees as not up to the job. The PM may also promote those he sees as especially loyal, while offloading those he sees as potential future leadership challengers.

Cabinet reshuffles are big occasions in UK politics and journalists love them because they’re an opportunity to gossip about which ministers are going up or down. The PM’s advisers often brief prominent journalists about which minister is likely to go where, or sometimes suggest that a particular minister is close to getting the boot so as to keep that individual on his toes.

On the day of a cabinet reshuffle, the PM calls or sees in person all the ministers he wants to promote or remove. Waiting to see what the PM will do is extremely nerve-wracking for ministers and their advisers. Some political careers virtually come to an end on reshuffle day.

Not just cabinet ministers get moved on reshuffle day; junior ministers are also shunted about. These people don’t hold cabinet rank but do a job within a ministry. For example, within the Department of Work and Pensions is a secretary of state for work and pensions who’s of cabinet rank; below him is a minister for work, one for pensions and even one for pension reform. These junior ministers want one day to be a cabinet minister but must first prove that they make a good fist of a more lowly post and then catch the eye of the PM.

Sometimes the reshuffle is dramatic and changes the fortunes of the government for good or ill. In 1962, Conservative PM Harold Macmillan sacked seven senior cabinet ministers following the Profumo scandal (see Chapter 24 for more on this).

The move became known as the Night of the Long Knives and, although a bold step, it didn’t have the desired effect. A short time afterwards Macmillan stepped down as PM on medical grounds but by then his savage cabinet reshuffle had led to him losing the confidence of many of his own MPs and cabinet.

Whispering in the PM’s Ear: Special Advisers

One of the biggest changes in modern British politics is the rise of the special adviser. A special adviser is someone – often a journalist or expert – whose job it is to advise the minister or, in some cases, the PM. He may have particular expertise or just be a long-standing, trusted confidante of the minister in question. Regardless, special advisers have an enormous behind-the-scenes influence on government policy and, in particular, its presentation in the media and to the wider public. (Chapter 10 explores the role of the special adviser, particularly in relation to media manipulation.) During the daily cut and thrust of government a special adviser acts as gatekeeper for the minister, as well as a trusted sounding board and expert. The government of Tony Blair saw a huge explosion in special advisers in Whitehall. Blair alone had upwards of 50 special advisers, whereas the previous PM, John Major, had a mere 8.

Tony Blair’s fondness for political advisers and gradual marginalisation of the full cabinet led some to suggest that he had a presidential style of government, in that he took more decision-making onto his shoulders than many previous PMs rather than relying on cabinet colleagues. In fact, Blair seemed to make many key political or policy decisions with a few close confidantes. As a result, Blair’s style was termed a sofa government: a relaxed method of debate with a handful of people close to him, most notably his press secretary, Alastair Campbell. However, set against this theory is the fact that Blair also ceded much of his authority in domestic policy matters to his chancellor, Gordon Brown.

Turning to the Opposition: The Shadow Cabinet

Most government ministers have a shadow. A shadow refers to an MP from an opposition party whose job it is to put across what policies that party would do if it were in office.

So, when the secretary of state for health sets out a new policy on hospital treatment, his shadow will reveal what the opposition party would do about reforming hospital treatment if elected or simply point out what he sees as the failings in the government policy.

The shadow cabinet is supposed to be a government in waiting and meets regularly in the House of Commons to plan strategy. A shadow cabinet

• Sets out policies the opposition party would pursue
• Criticises the actions of ministers and exposes what it sees as failings in government
• Acts as a potential government, ready and waiting

The shadow cabinet may become the cabinet after an election. However, if the leader of the opposition later becomes PM, it’s not a given that the member of the shadow cabinet responsible for education is appointed secretary of state for education. Who makes it into the new cabinet is entirely up to the new PM.

A member of the shadow cabinet is referred to as a front bencher. This term derives from the fact that he has the right to sit on the front bench of his party’s row of benches in the House of Commons or House of Lords.