John Major adopted a more collegiate style. Cabinet played a greater role in the implementation of government policy. This was what had lacked under the reign of Thatcher. Major appeared to be a weak Prime Minister, both physically and politically. He failed to let the people and his cabinet know what he wanted to achieve and was unable to set a political agenda. Major saw the limitations of his authority and managed his Cabinet in a way that ensured he stay in power for more than six years. Although he made mistakes he was tactically astute. Major used cabinet meeting to bind both pro-European and Euro sceptic ministers to government policy on Europe. In general he did not have a lot of competition for his job within his party. Major had a different leadership style to Thatcher and Blair, he was the balancer. He had to bring together the two divisions in his party. He had to make policies through compromise, that is, he had to ensure both sides of the party were happy with his policy. This shows that John Major’s power within his party, did not give the impression of being the one ruling authority, like that of Thatcher.
Tony Blair is seen as a more dominant Prime Minister than Major. He even seems to be more powerful than Thatcher. Tony Blair’s era is seen as being rather presidential. Blair makes the key decisions in government, as well as having the political and media spotlight firmly placed on his every move. Tony Blair is the most important man within government, and the chief communicator to it, and the public. Blair is seen to have more power, because he is not under pressure form the cabinet, to conduct more meeting with them, on political issues. He prefers to have bilateral meetings with individual ministers, where policy objectives are resolved. The office of the Prime Minister has been strengthened and more of the cabinet has fallen under the control of the Prime Minister. This shows increasing power for the Prime Minster. Blair has had an easier time in office that Major. He has enjoyed large parliamentary majorities, a strong position within his party and a largely silent cabinet.
We can see that as we have moved down the list of the last three Prime Ministers, the power they have had has generally increased. Tony Blair has been the most powerful Prime Minster so far, this was due to the lack of opposition he faced when he came to power. He was a new Prime Minster, with a well educated background. He was young with fresh ideas, and therefore was favoured by the old style Labour Party. He had a new economic policy, which was less radical. The Labour party, given the name, attracted working class workers, but with a Prime Minister from a Middle class background, he attracted more Middle class voters. The party had been a very left wing one, for many years, with socialist policies. Tony Blair was trying to move the party to the right. For these reasons he was favoured in generally by the majority, therefore with no opposition, he was able to develop a powerful presidential style in office.
Margaret Thatcher represented a powerful position within her cabinet, but she was facing pressure from the beginning. The Conservative party is seen to be full of males. Her being a female would have faced slight grudges due to her gender. The fact she never listen to her cabinet, or went to her cabinet for advice, meant that lost the confidence of her party. She exercised the power that was available to her well, but this was also the reasons that lead to her downfall. Tony Blair exercised his power, but not with radical left wing policies. Major in general did not have any power; he was left to pick up the pieces after the terrible reign of Thatcher. She destroyed the image of the party, and Major had to try his best to socialise the party into high public ratings, and stop the members within the party from going to war. Therefore he had no time to think about his position, and the power available to him.