Last week I wrote to Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House, after he appeared on the news suggesting that if Boris was defeated in his Confidence vote we should then have a General Election.
The main reason he was suggesting this would be necessary was because our General Elections had become increasingly ‘Presidential’ being centred around who the country wanted as their PM with the decision on which party would form the government becoming the secondary consideration.
I feel sure that JRM’s point was very ‘party political’ as he was trying to sure up the PM’s position by warning the ‘rebels’ that ousting Johnson could well end up threatening their seats in another GE.
Even so I wrote to him to explain how our third demand ‘A Separation of Power’ also included the reasons why we supported an elected PM with his cabinet, approved by but sitting outside parliament would greatly improve the accountability of governments and therefore our democracy overall.
An elected PM would prevent the party anointments that allowed Major, Brown, May and initially Johnson to become PM. The process would be very simple in that at elections as well as voting for your MP you would also vote for the candidate you wanted to be Prime Minister.
As to the legitimacy of PMs let’s consider David Cameron as a recent example. When he became PM. He gained office by virtue of 33,973 votes in the 2010 election. All these came from his constituency of Witney, which boasted 78,220 electors. The rest of the nation was not allowed a vote for the man. He may have been elected as an MP, but he was not elected as PM through a general franchise.
At the moment, with the current Conservative Party 'charade' of trying to oust Johnson the need for an elected PM, by general franchise, could not be stronger. We also believe, as in America, they should only serve for a maximum of eight years.
It is possible that this could lead to a PM who was from a different party to the one with a majority of MPs in the Commons but that doesn't stop the process of governance it just creates the need for policy compromises which is an important element of democracy. In America, for example, we have had a Democratic President with a Republican House of Representatives and the basics of their governance still functioned.
Finally, how parties select their leaders is up to them but that wouldn’t exclude another candidate from the same party putting their name forward. An elected PM has the distinct advantage of having been endorsement by the people.
Our democracy would be approved by having our PM elected by the people.
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