Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is the head of government, exercising many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. According to custom, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (which he or she heads) are responsible for their actions to Parliament, of which they are members by (modern) convention. The current Prime Minister is Tony Blair (of the Labour Party), who has been in office since 1997. For the complete list of British Prime Ministers, see List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom.

The Office

Although in recent years it has never hindered any premier in the exercise of his or her office, the official status of the Prime Minister remains somewhat ambiguous. A Prime Minister has virtually no statutory authority in his or her own right; all the actual business of running the country and spending the budget is (in theory) carried out by the holders of more explicitly defined Cabinet offices, who are empowered to do so by various Acts of Parliament. The Prime Minister holds at least one of these more tangible ministerial offices himself—normally First Lord of the Treasury—and indeed receives his or her salary and public accommodation only by virtue of that office.

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The title "Prime Minister", however, is not altogether a matter of convention, as in 1905 it was in a sense given official recognition when the "Prime Minister" was named in the "order of precedence," outranked, among non-royals, only by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and by the Lord Chancellor. Furthermore, the office is not entirely without statutory justification, since it has in fact been explicitly named a number of times in emergency wartime legislation. All sorts of official pronouncements are issued from Downing Street in the name of the "Prime Minister" without further circumlocution.

Related Topics:
1905 - Order of precedence - Canterbury - York - Lord Chancellor

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By convention, the Prime Minister also holds the office of First Lord of the Treasury. The only Prime Ministers who have not also served as First Lord for a significant part of their administrations are William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (who was Lord Privy Seal) and, for most of his three premierships, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (who was either Foreign Secretary or Lord Privy Seal except for the first few months of his second premiership when he was First Lord). Since Lord Salisbury's retirement in 1902, every Prime Minister has also been First Lord of the Treasury. Some have held yet more offices; for example, Tony Blair is both First Lord and Minister for the Civil Service.

Related Topics:
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham - Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury - Foreign Secretary

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There is also the associated post of Deputy Prime Minister. An officer with such a title need not always exist; rather, the existence of the post is dependent on the form of Cabinet organisation preferred by the Prime Minister and his or her party. The office's title, however, may be considered something of a misnomer; the Deputy Prime Minister does not automatically succeed when a vacancy in the premiership is suddenly created, nor does he or she assume any additional powers when the Prime Minister is outside the country. He may, however, be expected to stand in for the Prime Minister on occasion, for example by taking the dispatch box at Prime Minister's Question Time when the Prime Minister is unable to attend. This occurs with varying frequency—usually only important international negotiations prevent the Prime Minister from taking Questions when the House is in session. The position has often been used honorifically. Under the Blair Government, a separate department called the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was created in 2002. The present Deputy Prime Minister is John Prescott, who was previously Secretary of State for Transport, Environment and the Regions. The previous holder of the post was Michael Heseltine, who was appointed in the John Major government after the post had briefly fallen into desuetude.

Related Topics:
Deputy Prime Minister - Prime Minister's Question Time - 2002 - John Prescott - Michael Heseltine - John Major

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In the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the position which corresponds with that of Prime Minister is First Minister. (See First Minister of Scotland, First Minister of Wales, and First Minister of Northern Ireland.)

Related Topics:
Devolved - Scotland - Wales - Northern Ireland - First Minister - First Minister of Scotland - First Minister of Wales - First Minister of Northern Ireland

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