Who Gets to be Prime Minister?

About the lecture

In this module, Dr Heffernan outlines the three essential ‘job criteria’ that every prime minister must have, namely: (i) they must be a Member of Parliament (MP), (ii) they must be the leader of a political party in the House of Commons and, (iii) they must be the leader of a party which holds either a single majority in parliament or a minority government in a hung parliament in which an agreement has been reached with another party.

About the lecturer

Richard Heffernan is a Lecturer in Politics at the Open University and Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame. He works in the field of comparative politics and specialises in British politics. He is presently researching the British prime minister.