AQA Government and Politics Chapter 3: The Prime Minister and Cabinet (Essay Plans)
Updated 2023/2024
This Resource includes 11 9-Mark Question Plans and 4 25-Mark Question Plans for the 'Prime Minister and Cabinet' topic - also including a list of key definitions alongside a specification chec...
= Has already Come Up on a previous paper
(Although unlikely to repeat specification points on questions,
please don’t entirely rule this out!)
Chapter 3 – The Prime
Minister + Cabinet
Core Executive – Policy-making network including PM, senior ministers, cabinet
committees, and civil servants
Prime Minister – First Minister, head of government
Primus Inter Pares – First Among Equals
Cabinet – 20-25 senior ministers who meet weekly, key decision-making body in the UK
Inner Cabinet – Small core of ministers a PM particularly relies upon for advice / support –
reflects tendency for PM to seek support from trustworthy ministers
Cabinet Committee – Specialist subdivision of cabinet comprising of fewer members who
focus on particular policy areas
Individual Responsibility – Ministers are responsible for their own actions while in office,
and are expected to resign if they fall short
Collective Responsibility – all ministers must collectively support government policy in
public, if not they must resign
Accountability – Requirement to explain + respond to any actions that ministers undertake
,“Explain and Analyse three ways in which the cabinet can
limit the power of the Prime Minister” / “Explain and
analyse three functions of the Cabinet”
Resigning on the basis of Collective Ministerial Responsibility
- More than 30 Conservative Ministers resigned over Theresa May's Brexit
deal, including David Davis and Dominic Raab (two Brexit secretaries)
- 2022 = Johnson had over 50 ministerial resignations as a result of
Partygate
- TISB this applies more political pressure on the PM to change their
political stance as resignations weaken their initial one (or perhaps
resign themselves in Johnson’s case)
While PMs can carry on with their policy directions despite mass
resignations, the pressure is now insurmountable – leading to Theresa
May’s resignation announcement in May 2019
Refusing to agree to certain terms in a meeting
- Collective Ministerial Responsibility: all cabinet members have to agree
on an issue before it is passed, and the PM is simply ‘primus inter pares’
(first among equals) among them
- Cabinet refused to approve Theresa May’s ‘Brexit’ EU Withdrawal Deal –
successfully limiting her power
- Less significant – refusing to agree does not always work in certain
circumstances – e.g., during the 2010-15 Coalition government,
compromise was required for the politically divided cabinet on issues
such as tuition fees (in which the Lib Dems were forced to cave in)
Individual Cabinet Members can have a dominating influence on the PM
- Having a dominant and influential figure in the cabinet such as Gordon
Brown in Blair’s Cabinet or Rishi Sunak in Johnson’s Cabinet ‘big beasts’
- TISB, due to potentially having different political and ideological
differences, these dominant figures serve as a significant ‘check’ on the
PMs power to ensure they are not acting out of step
yet this is not as effective as mass resignations, which apply greater
political pressure which leads to greater limitations of the PM’s power
“Explain and Analyse three ways in which collective
responsibility has come under pressure since 1979”
, Leaking to the Press
- May 2019 = Gavin Williamson was fired as defence secretary over leaks
of Huawei’s involvement to help set up the UK’s 5G network
- TISB the private nature of the meeting meant that any leak of
information was seen as a serious breach, disunifying the government as
a collective front and presenting them as unorganised
When Boris Johnson became PM he issued a new edition of the
Ministerial Code which read “there must be…no leaking”
Criticising fellow Cabinet Members
- 2018 = Treasury Minister Liz Truss openly criticised environment
secretary Michael Gove for “telling people how to live their lives” at a
talk at LSE, after Gove had warned of the environmental impact of
woodburning stoves
- TISB collective responsibility requires all ministers to support policy in
public, and this led to an image of an openly divided and weak
government
Truss’ commentary and play on words (‘woodburning Goves’)
conspicuously mocked her environment secretary, undermining this
sense of a unified and supportive front
Outright Suspension of Collective Responsibility
- Suspended during the 2016 referendum over Britain’s continued
membership over the EU – Cameron allowed ministers to publicly
disagree with the Government’s “leave” position, yet this was strictly
only applied to “the question of whether we should remain in the EU or
leave”
- TISB this shows how outright suspension occurs where it is widely
apparent that ministers held opposing views – being an ‘agree to
disagree’ policy determined by political realities
Likewise suspended during the 2011 AV referendum and in 2016 over
the Government’s plans to build a third runway at Heathrow
“Explain and Analyse three considerations made when
appointing cabinet ministers”
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