Category: Prime Minister
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Dane Luo: The Church Appointments (Repeal of Discriminatory Provision) Bill 2026 and Constitutional Advice to the Sovereign
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that, while he is no longer a regular Mass-goer, he still professes the Catholic faith. His religious beliefs triggered the operation of s 18 of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, which makes it unlawful for any person professing the Roman Catholic religion ‘directly or indirectly to advise [His]…
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Robert Craig: Uncomfortable, But Not Unconstitutional – The Transition to a New Prime Minister
Despite Keir Starmer’s landslide majority just two years ago, the former Prime Minister announced his resignation from the premiership on 20 July. The departure of yet another prime minister, in short order, follows a series of political misjudgements that saw his support in both parliament and country drain away. The only candidate to replace Mr…
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Leah Trueblood: An Injustice in the Law of Information Rights: Tortoise Media Ltd v Conservative Party and Unionist Party
In the summer of 2022, during the election process which Liz Truss would eventually win, Tortoise Media wrote to the Conservative Party’s CEO, Darren Mott, asking nine questions. Considering Tortoise Media had just successfully registered a tortoise called Archie, two overseas nationals, and one fictional person called ‘Margaret Roberts’ to vote for Britain’s next prime…
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Dane Luo: There is ‘Advice’ and then there is ‘advice’: The Constitutional Conventions on the Appointment of the Prime Minister
On 23 May 2025, the Court of Appeal held that the Conservative Party was not exercising a ‘public function’ for the purposes of s 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 when it elected Liz Truss as party leader, who would go on to be appointed as the Prime Minister: R (Tortoise Media Ltd) v…
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Stefan Theil: Medical Incapacity and the UK Constitution
In the United Kingdom, the mental health of politicians has traditionally commanded relatively little attention, perhaps due to popular cynicism and distrust towards elected officials. Still, those involved in UK political life have characterised it as a ‘rough old game’, with MPs referencing broken marriages, overwork, loss of friendships and poor sleep. Over time, MPs…
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Alyssa Nathanson-Tanner: The Irresistible Temptations of Patronage: Prime Ministerial Appointment of Crossbenchers
Among the many questions raised by the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury in November 2024, the peerage which has customarily been awarded by the Prime Minister hangs in the balance. The Prime Minister enjoys an unlimited discretion to appoint new peers, and since the Life Peerages Act 1958 has granted a life peerage on…
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David Torrance: Ministerial hand kissing
“There we were, 16 grown men,” complained the Labour minister Richard Crossman on joining the Privy Council in 1964: For over an hour we were taught how to stand up, how to kneel on one knee on a cushion, how to raise the right hand with the bible in it, how to advance three paces towards…
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Rodney Brazier: No Way to Pick a PM
And so the United Kingdom has a new Prime Minister, replacing one who, having besmirched the office, had been forced out. The Conservatives took almost eight weeks to choose Liz Truss. That saga resembled a presidential election, not least in the televised debates that were occasionally as unedifying as they were uninformative, and notoriously in…
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Mike Gordon: The Prime Minister, the Parties, and the Ministerial Code
The current Prime Minister’s long running battle with the Seven Principles of Public Life continues to gather pace. Boris Johnson’s actions relating to the pandemic ‘partygate’ scandal have arguably violated each of the principles established by the Nolan Committee in 1995: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. The Prime Minister’s full house of…
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Paul Burgess: A Rule of Law Surprise Party(gate)
Partygate could tear apart the UK government but, regardless of one’s political preferences, there have been some good things that have come from the episode. Where it is not unusual to see different conceptions of the Rule of Law invoked on opposing sides of an argument, it was a pleasant surprise to see opposing sides…