Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007. He did not face a leadership contest from within the Labour Party (his only potential opponent, John McDonnell, only received 8.2% of nominations) and Brown was always seen as Tony Blair’s designated successor. He lost the 2010 General Election to David Cameron and the election campaign included the infamous ‘bigotgate’ affair. So what happened and why was it significant?
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A Government is formed in the UK when the King invites a member of the House of Commons to form one. It is by convention that a Prime Minister comes from the House of Commons and is the leader of the largest party in the House. This is because as Prime Minister they need to be directly accountable to the people’s elected representatives. As such, the last Prime Minister to govern from the House of Lords was the Marquess of Salisbury in 1902. It is normally pretty clear cut who is to become Prime Minister. However, what happens if that is not the case and why might a ‘confidence and supply’ agreement become necessary?
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Since its inception after the Constitutional Reform Act (2005) a number of extremely significant judicial review cases have ended up in the UK Supreme Court, the final court of appeal in the UK. Arguably, none are as significant as Miller vs. Prime Minister in 2019. So, what was this case about and why was it so constitutionally significant?
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