Re: British Politics Guide
Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 5:00 pm
Well, thinking about it it's more likely that she tries to hang on until a successor is elected - that's what they usually do. Howard managed to hang around 6 months after resigning.
But if she did resign on the spot, presumably because she thought she had no other choice, then there simply wouldn't be a leader of the party. That's happened once before in recent times, when Major resigned the party leadership in order to invite (and defeat) an overt challenge, to try to end the backstabbing that marked his time in power - between Major's resignation and Major's re-election, there was no leader.
Sometimes there's been a deputy leader; I don't know if there was one in Major's interregnum. Really, though, it doesn't much matter - nothing will fall apart if a party doesn't have an official leader for a few weeks.
In practice, who would hold most power in the party in that period? We don't know, but there would probably be a number of influential figures:
- Theresa May would still be the Prime Minister, and would continue to set government policy, and hence would set party policy by default, unless people wanted to actively distance themselves from her.
- Brandon Lewis is Chairman of the Conservative Party. This isn't a hugely powerful role - partly because it's granted by the Leader rather than having any independent power-base - but it is a symbolic one. Lewis is officially in charge of the party - if there are any disputes over leadership election protocol, for example, I'd expect Lewis to be the one to at least officially set the rules. He's not a big name himself, though (unlike some past Party Chairmen) so he may well look to others for guidance.
- Graham Brady is Chairman of the 1922 Committee, and hence represents Tory MPs. He would have a lot of influence over issues of MP representation (including things like election rules), and his lead would be important in determining how closely Party MPs felt obliged to follow the direction of the PM.
- Julian Smith is Chief Whip. It's his job to get the party's MPs to vote according to party policy - which means that de facto he has a big role in determining what that policy is. Normally it means getting people to obey the PM, but in the case of a caretaker PM, things might be more fluid; certainly he'd have a big role behind the scenes conveying to the PM the mood of the MPs and persuading her not to have policies that her MPs don't want to support.
But if she did resign on the spot, presumably because she thought she had no other choice, then there simply wouldn't be a leader of the party. That's happened once before in recent times, when Major resigned the party leadership in order to invite (and defeat) an overt challenge, to try to end the backstabbing that marked his time in power - between Major's resignation and Major's re-election, there was no leader.
Sometimes there's been a deputy leader; I don't know if there was one in Major's interregnum. Really, though, it doesn't much matter - nothing will fall apart if a party doesn't have an official leader for a few weeks.
In practice, who would hold most power in the party in that period? We don't know, but there would probably be a number of influential figures:
- Theresa May would still be the Prime Minister, and would continue to set government policy, and hence would set party policy by default, unless people wanted to actively distance themselves from her.
- Brandon Lewis is Chairman of the Conservative Party. This isn't a hugely powerful role - partly because it's granted by the Leader rather than having any independent power-base - but it is a symbolic one. Lewis is officially in charge of the party - if there are any disputes over leadership election protocol, for example, I'd expect Lewis to be the one to at least officially set the rules. He's not a big name himself, though (unlike some past Party Chairmen) so he may well look to others for guidance.
- Graham Brady is Chairman of the 1922 Committee, and hence represents Tory MPs. He would have a lot of influence over issues of MP representation (including things like election rules), and his lead would be important in determining how closely Party MPs felt obliged to follow the direction of the PM.
- Julian Smith is Chief Whip. It's his job to get the party's MPs to vote according to party policy - which means that de facto he has a big role in determining what that policy is. Normally it means getting people to obey the PM, but in the case of a caretaker PM, things might be more fluid; certainly he'd have a big role behind the scenes conveying to the PM the mood of the MPs and persuading her not to have policies that her MPs don't want to support.