Tag: general election
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Sanjit Nagi: “A Mandate for Change!”: Popular Sovereignty and the Labour Party
The recent general election saw the Labour Party being elected with a majority of 171 seats in Parliament. The following morning, in his first speech as Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer claimed the nation had given the Labour Party a “clear mandate”. Similarly, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, stated the British people…
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Tom Caygill and Jack Simson Caird: Constitutional Groundhog Day: The Post-legislative Review and Repeal of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011
The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (hereafter the FTPA) removed the Prime Minister’s power to unilaterally trigger a general election, extinguished the Monarch’s prerogative power to dissolve Parliament and established a system of fixed-term (or semi-fixed) five-year Parliaments. Section 7 of the Act, a government concession following intense scrutiny in the House of Lords, requires the…
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David Howarth: How to Change the Government Without Causing a General Election
The Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 removed the ability of Prime Ministers to call early general elections and handed that power to Parliament. Parliament has two options: a motion supported by two thirds of MPs (434 votes) that an early election should take place; or a motion of no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government, in…
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Ruth Keating: Rigorous Impartiality and a Coalition of Chaos
“What a fool I was. I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative Party into power.” Edward Carson, leader of the Ulster Unionists during the Home Rule crisis, 1921 Amongst Theresa May’s list of growing concerns is a potential landmark…
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Robert Brett Taylor: The West Lothian Question, EVEL and the 2017 General Election
Despite losing their majority in the general election on 8th June, the Conservative Party remains the largest party in the Commons. Consequently, Theresa May is seeking to form a minority government with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and is currently in talks with them to finalise a ‘confidence and supply’ agreement. Such…
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Robert Craig: Zombie Prerogatives Should Remain Decently Buried: Replacing the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (Part 2)
Editors’ note: This is the second of a two-part contribution. The first part may be found here. Part 2: What should replace the FTPA? A previous post argued that a bare repeal of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (‘FTPA’) would not revive the dissolution prerogative. A new statute with clear words would be required in…
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Robert Craig: Zombie Prerogatives Should Remain Decently Buried: Replacing the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (Part 1)
Editors’ note: This is the first part of a two-part contribution. The second part will be posted tomorrow. Part 1: Would the prerogative be revived? I In the light of widespread dissatisfaction with the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (‘FTPA’), the Conservative party manifesto states, at page 43, “We will repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act”. This…
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Robert Hazell: Is the Fixed-term Parliaments Act a Dead Letter?
Cross-posted from the Constitution Unit blog. The ease with which Theresa May was able to secure an early dissolution last week has led to suggestions that the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 serves no useful purpose and should be scrapped. Drawing on wider evidence of how fixed-term parliaments legislation works in other countries, Robert Hazell argues that…
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Paul Reid: How Fixed Is a Fixed-term Parliament?
However unexpected the Prime Minister’s call for a general election may be, and however appropriate it may, or may not, be (see Jeff King’s discussion here), it invites the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011 to operate as it was designed: if two-thirds of the House of Commons resolves that there should be an early general election…
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Jeff King: May’s Gambit
Theresa May has deftly launched a gambit to get around the core purpose of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 – and all signs are that it will succeed without delay. The purpose of that Act (for a tidy summary of resources see here) was to stop prime ministers from calling an election at a…