Prime Minster Powers

In the UK, the prime minister is seen as the head of the elected government, he/she is seen as the main representative figure of UK and, the leader. Being the prime minster obviously has its rewards, powers such as the ability to appoint and dismiss ministers, control over government agenda. Etc. these are powers only the prime minster can exercise. Thus it seems as if the prime minster of the UK is very powerful, yet with power, there’s also some constraints, even for the prime minister. There are certain constraints that can be exercised to limit powers of the prime minster, and in this essay we will be examining these principle constraints. Furthermore, this essay will also look into presidential prime minster, a political model where the …show more content…
A strong prime minster indicates that he has a strong party. This means, the prime ministers party dominates in parliament, in particular the House of Commons. With the majority of the seats, and a strong party whip, the prime minster can dominate for a significantly long time. An example of this is Tony Blair, who in his first and second term as prime minster, along with his Labour party dominated in parliament, allowing him to practice many of his powers, such as the access to ‘spin doctors’ who would be employed to get the right message through to the public. In the 1997 general elections
“ Tony Blair's New Labour had gained a staggering 179-seat overall majority in the Commons” (BBC, 2005) giving him and his party a huge majority over their rivals the …show more content…
Parliament has the ability to remove the prime minister, but this is usually very rare for parliament to go to that extent. The House of Lords can challenge the prime minister over legislations that may not fit well with them and parliament in general. Proving checks and balances, similar to the public, they can monitor the prime minster voice concerns and debate against the prime minister when nothing could be resolved in the Commons. Although, Blair did get defeated any times in Lords over legislations, yet he was almost victorious in the Commons. This may seem like a good thing for the prime minister, and in this case for Tony Blair, but the defeat in Lords indicated that there were tension within parliament over Blair and his use of powers. The most up to date situation that has occurred where the prime minister has had to take into the accounts of the Lords is the issue regarding tax credits, where the chancellor George Osborne had to stop his tax credit legislation due to the influence of the Lords. As the prime minister doesn’t really have a department of his own, he separates departments for the cabinet ministers, who voice his ideas, and thus when the Lords defeated Osborne over the tax credits, David Cameron also lost out. As David Cameron has little control over the House of Lords, as it is part of