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Prime Ministerial Power: Events in 2022-23
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Recent Events in UK Politics (February 2022 - February 2023)
In this course, Dr Andrew Blick explores and analyses key developments in UK Government and Politics throughout 2022 and the first month of 2023. In the first module, Dr Blick tackles the eventful year of three Prime Ministers and what this can tell us about Prime Ministerial power in the UK, before in the second module turning to the subject of standards, integrity and accountability, particularly as this relates to government ministers. In the third module, we explore some of the key recent developments in the debate over Scottish independence, before in the fourth module turning to the reignited debate over the House of Lords, and current Labour Party plans for reform. In the fifth module, we turn to the subject of industrial action and disruption in UK politics, before in the sixth module exploring the continuing political and diplomatic controversy over the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland. In the seventh module, we outline the continuing uncertainty surrounding the controversial Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, before finally, in the eighth lecture, rounding off with some comments on how the Labour Party under Keir Starmer adapted to “post-Brexit” politics in 2022. This course may be particularly useful for those looking to brush up on their knowledge of recent events in UK Government and Politics, as well as those looking for relevant and recent examples to use in exam essays.
Prime Ministerial Power: Events in 2022-23
In this module, Dr Andrew Blick outlines some of the key developments in UK Prime Ministerial power throughout 2022 and early (pre-February) 2023, focusing in particular on: (i) the resignation of Boris Johnson; (ii) what to make of Johnson’s stint as Prime Minister and ultimate loss of power; (iii) the Conservative leadership race in 2022 and Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership; (iv) Rishi Sunak’s first few months as Prime Minister.
I'm Andrew Blick, professor of politics and contemporary history.
00:00:06King's College London
00:00:09Recent months in the UK have seen quite dramatic series of events where we've
00:00:12actually been through three prime ministers in a relatively short space of time.
00:00:19In July,
00:00:25the conservative prime minister Boris Johnson was forced to agree to stand down,
00:00:27followed in September by Liz Truss, who took over lose trust.
00:00:34His premiership proved to be one of the shortest lived in history, and in October,
00:00:39trust was replaced by Russia's snack again.
00:00:45They're all conservative prime ministers now. This sequence of events
00:00:50is quite interesting from the point of view.
00:00:55What we think about the role of the prime minister being what prime minister do,
00:00:57how much power they have, how things can go wrong for them
00:01:03to start with. Boris Johnson.
00:01:07He had previously seemed to be in a very strong political position.
00:01:09In December 2019, he won a big general election victory for the Conservatives.
00:01:14He seemed to be able to appeal to voters
00:01:20in areas where the conservatives weren't previously successful.
00:01:22He seemed to have put together a powerful electoral coalition,
00:01:26and
00:01:30this made him politically strong. He then went on to conclude
00:01:31a UK exit from the European Union Brexit, as it's known,
00:01:36which was something he pledged to do.
00:01:41And at least he and some of his supporters would argue
00:01:44he was eventually effective in bringing about the vaccine rollout,
00:01:48although how how well he really did in that regard is a matter for debate.
00:01:54But there are ways in which Johnson might be seen to have been in a strong position.
00:01:59However, he was also prone to getting involved in various scandals,
00:02:03and people around him were prone to getting involved in scandals in wage,
00:02:08which reflected negatively on him.
00:02:11And also
00:02:14the UK started to get into various economic difficulties, all of which served to
00:02:15undermine his political position.
00:02:22Eventually,
00:02:25his own party and ministers within his own government
00:02:26by the middle of 2022 decided they'd had enough.
00:02:30They couldn't serve under him any longer,
00:02:35and there were a series of resignations in early July 22 by top ministers.
00:02:37In the end, Joe Johnson, although resisting for a while,
00:02:43I realised the game was up and agreed to go,
00:02:47so this sequence of events tells us that prime ministers can be very powerful,
00:02:50they can have a big policy impact in areas such as Brexit.
00:02:55They can be strong when things are going well for them. But
00:02:59if things start to go less well and if they begin
00:03:03to be perceived as being electoral liabilities which Johnson increasingly was,
00:03:07people on their own side will start to turn against them
00:03:12and may even get rid of get rid of them as they did with Johnson.
00:03:16Johnson was succeeded by Liz Truss. An interesting point about this trust is that
00:03:20she was elected as lead the Conservative Party and
00:03:27therefore prime minister in a two stage process.
00:03:30The first stage involved conservative MPs in parliament.
00:03:33Among them, Trust was not the favourite candidate.
00:03:37Ritchie Soon AC actually came first in the vote among
00:03:41MPs.
00:03:44However, in the second stage,
00:03:45which involved members of the Conservative Party and the country as a whole,
00:03:48voting trust one.
00:03:51So she was favoured by the Conservative party members,
00:03:53but not by the Conservative Party in Parliament,
00:03:56which is interesting because in the end prime ministers have to work
00:04:00a lot with parliament and if the support isn't quite there,
00:04:04it's an interesting position.
00:04:07Nevertheless, trust was in power,
00:04:08she regarded herself as having a mandate for things
00:04:10she said she'd do when seeking election from members.
00:04:13And one of the first things she wanted to do was a radical change in tax policy.
00:04:17Yes,
00:04:23involved basically reducing taxes for the richest people in society in
00:04:23the hope that it would stimulate growth and everybody would benefit.
00:04:31This was a politically controversial move.
00:04:35Even some within her own party thought it wasn't particularly sensible.
00:04:38Lots of economists were querying how it would work out,
00:04:42but but trust was determined to do it.
00:04:45And this show those, I think again, Prime minister power at work.
00:04:49They really want to force a policy through.
00:04:52Often they can if they're determined enough,
00:04:55and it does show that prime ministers do have power.
00:04:58But we also see the other side to that. The downside to that.
00:05:01The international financial markets reacted very badly to this policy.
00:05:05Sterling started to crash in value.
00:05:11There are other associated economic and financial difficulties,
00:05:13and trust very soon had to do a partial U turn on that policy,
00:05:17which meant that from the very beginning almost of her premiership,
00:05:21she was in a weakened political position and things went from there and little.
00:05:26His trust was eventually removed as prime minister and proved too,
00:05:32because also one of the shortest serving prime ministers in history.
00:05:36Trust was then replaced by Rishi Sirnak,
00:05:40the person she had actually beaten among the vote
00:05:44of members of the Conservative Party in the country.
00:05:47So in that sense he was the second choice of members.
00:05:49But he got the job the way in which he was elected actually involved, in effect,
00:05:52MPs in parliament agreeing that he was the candidate.
00:05:57There wasn't an support for any other candidate to go forward
00:06:00boys.
00:06:03Johnson, in fact,
00:06:04was possibly going to be a candidate but decided
00:06:05to pull out at the last minute so soon.
00:06:07AC got the job because there was no one else
00:06:10in the field and there was no vote of members.
00:06:12So again, interesting position.
00:06:15He didn't necessarily have the mandate for members that trust had,
00:06:17But there was evidence he had more support from the parliamentary party,
00:06:19which might be encouraging.
00:06:23If you look at it from the point of view,
00:06:25as I said that prime ministers need to
00:06:27work with the parliamentary parties most of all,
00:06:28however,
00:06:31Cenac was inheriting economic and political problems
00:06:32that have been building up under Johnson
00:06:36and then trust. So it's quite a difficult position to take over in
00:06:39and quite quickly he got involved
00:06:43in various difficulties involving ministerial scandals,
00:06:46ministers being forced to resign difficulties like that.
00:06:50Also, while he did have more support than
00:06:53other candidates among his parliamentary party,
00:06:57it's not clear that his parliamentary party was or is entirely convinced about him.
00:07:01And there are lots of different factions within the conservative party.
00:07:07Disagreements over issues such as. Should we be cutting taxes?
00:07:11Should we be taking a tough line with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol?
00:07:15Should we be taking firm measures to reduce
00:07:21carbon emissions or should we be loosening?
00:07:24These are all big areas of
00:07:27disagreement within the conservative parliamentary party
00:07:28and make it very difficult for Sin Act to
00:07:32be decisive about policies so all of that leads
00:07:35him in quite a restricted position is another example
00:07:39of how prime ministers can make a difference.
00:07:41They are important, but also they can be buffeted by external events
00:07:43
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Blick, A. (2023, March 07). Recent Events in UK Politics (February 2022 - February 2023) - Prime Ministerial Power: Events in 2022-23 [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/recent-events-in-uk-politics-february-2022-february-2023
MLA style
Blick, A. "Recent Events in UK Politics (February 2022 - February 2023) – Prime Ministerial Power: Events in 2022-23." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 07 Mar 2023, https://massolit.io/courses/recent-events-in-uk-politics-february-2022-february-2023