The Prime Minister is the most important person in British politics. The Prime Minister appoints his cabinet and makes the final decisions on major issues. The Prime Minister cannot become a President as the UK system would not allow it but in the recent years, people have criticised that our Prime Ministers have increasingly become more of a presidential figure in Parliament. Some of the ministers that have been referred to as presidential include Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair etc. Now in this essay, I will be analysing the factors that shows the growth of power of PM.
The idea that the prime minister is now more presidential is drawn from the knowledge of the United States president and how the British Prime Minister is compared to him. Firstly, the media turns the Prime Minister into a political celebrity. The action the Prime Minister takes is published in newspapers and television. The Prime minister is the spokesperson for the government. This is presidential in the sense that the PM is in the hot seat among his peers, which the president would be but only because he doesn't really have any peers.
Another argument for is that PM has the role as the commander in Chief , being involved in foreign policy and holding the same power he can command the armed forces and can approve or deny some legislation as the President gives the creditability to the nation that PM has become more presidential.
The PM’s use of prerogative power is extremely important, foreign policy and military issues become much more important since the end of the war. The Prime Minister holds a number of prerogative powers that once belonged to the Crown such as the power to declare war, mobilise troops, the ability to appoint senior civil servants or to bestow honour. This basically shows that PM can do what Presidents can.
The PM’s foreign policy commitment gives the