The number of cabinet members varies but there are usually 20-25 members selected from 100 government members with a tendency for the number to increase in normal times with the growth of governmental functions and to decrease in national emergencies when the executive power is concentrated in fewer hands. A Cabinet is selected by the Prime Minister from MPs who are serving in the current government. They are picked for reasons of expertise in their field, experience in a Government office, or for their loyalty to their party or Prime Minister. Because the Prime Minister is the one that selects his Cabinet, it is only natural that s/he will choose those who he feels will support him/her.
Just as the Prime Minister can select ministers, he can remove them e.g. Scotland Office Minister George Foulkes was reshuffled to the back benches on May 29th 2002. However, the Prime Minister would usually be reluctant to call for a cabinet ministers’ resignation whenever he encounters opposition or a difference of opinion as this could give the public an impression of a dictatorial PM.
Cabinet Members are not without a bite of their own. They have the ability to leak sensitive information to the media at crucial times that could lower the popularity of the Prime Minister and be detrimental to opinion pole standings. It is clear that Tony Blair puts great value on the control of media focusing on himself and his government. An unwanted leak could damage his public persona that has been so carefully constructed by the Labour spin doctors.
Previous PMs who have suffered the back lash from their Cabinet include Margaret Thatcher. Mrs. Thatcher lost power in 1990 as the longest serving Prime Minister of the century. She sacked 12 cabinet ministers from 1979-90, intervened in departmental affairs, publicly criticised some of her Ministers, and used leaks against them. It has also been said that she appointed weak ministers who could be easily controlled. “Eventually she failed because she undermined departmental authority and Cabinet Collegiality”
Tony Blair was once a barrister and this has brought accusations that he runs the cabinet like a law office. He has reduced the length of time that Cabinet meets every week and it’s frequency of meeting. He uses committees and private discussions more. Blair also reduced the power of some of his cabinet ministers, as was the case when he transferred the control of interest rates
from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Bank of England . The Financial experts and the media said this was a positive move as the Bank of England has more experience in financial affairs. Also, it would be worth noting that in the US and the EU interest rates are controlled by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank respectively, not a Cabinet member. That said, it took Mr. Blair and Gordon Brown 15 days to announce the transfer of responsibility for interest rates to the House earning a rebuke from the Speaker.
So what of the statement; “cabinet is supreme, and the premier traditionally "first among equals"? It is clear that cabinet can be as powerful as the Prime Minister allows it to be. He can use a Cabinet government to constrain the extent of his power, use a Prime ministerial government style to make the “office of the Prime Minister so powerful that it forms a political executive, “the efficient secret of government”, that effectively makes the decisions, with the Cabinet only a “dignified” part.” It would be wise for any Prime Minister to realise that his/her relationship with the Cabinet is symbiotic. The PM can sack who he wants, but if he looses support from them, then his own head is on the chopping block.
Budge, Crewe, The new British Politics 2/e(Longman,2001) p.216
The Guardian, Leader Section, 6/10/2001
Budge, Crewe, The new British Politics 2/e(Longman,2001) p.210