Royal prerogative of the UK Prime Minister

One of the examples of the PM’s royal prerogative would be his ability to dissolve parliament and call for a general election. Although the Prime Minister has to call for an election every five years the fact that he can choose when to do so empowers him. This is because the PM is likely to choose to call for an election at the time where the political atmosphere is best suited for him; this means his party is relatively popular whilst the opposition is not so popular. For example, Brown did not choose to call the election in January when he was facing plots to bring him down within the party; instead he choose to do so in late March when his leadership position was relatively firm and Labour’s popularity was higher. Arguably, this had lead to what can be said to be a good General Election result for Labour managing to prevent Cameron from gaining an overall majority.

Secondly, the PM has the power to appoint and dismiss ministers. The affect of such a royal prerogative is that it allows the PM to bypass the democratic process of elections and instead, appointing his own, preferred staff into the Whitehall office. Under Tony Blair, Alistair Campbell and Peter Mandelson were chosen to work closely with the PM. On many cases when it came to key decisions such as the Iraq War, Blair took his advice almost solely on these two men instead of his democratically elected ministers. The Prime Minister can also hand out peerages meaning he can appoint Lords. This affects the PM as it gives him controversial powers which are often used to rise party funding. The would-be PM David Cameron will hand Lord Ashcroft a peerage for the million of pounds he donated to the 2010 Conservative Election Campaign.

Thirdly, the PM has the power to declare a state of emergency and suspend normal government. This gives the PM a significant amount of power as it allows him to suspend democracy in times of the existence of serious threats. The last time a state of emergency was invoked was in 1974 by PM Edward Heath due to the industrial actions.  Many would argue this is a hazard to democracy however usage is extremely rare.