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What if the PM isn't elected?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I have often wondered about this, and so far have not found an answer.
In our system of government, the PM is the leader of the party that has the most MPs elected to parliament. But what happens if that leader didn't get elected in his own constituency?
I assume that they wouldn't be allowed to be PM, but is that the case?
What happens in the interim while the party in power elect a new party leader?
Or do parliament elect a PM?
In our system of government, the PM is the leader of the party that has the most MPs elected to parliament. But what happens if that leader didn't get elected in his own constituency?
I assume that they wouldn't be allowed to be PM, but is that the case?
What happens in the interim while the party in power elect a new party leader?
Or do parliament elect a PM?
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Comments
I can't vouch for that 100% but seems to make sense...
It's also not neccessarily true that the leader of the party is PM, in 1940 Churchill was PM whilst Chamberlain remained leader of the Conservative Party (at least until his death) (and theoretically as DPM Clegg could at least temporarily become PM if Cameron dies and he wouldn;t even be a member of the largest party)
My understanding is that at the moment William Hague is technically Conservative Deputy Leader (Harriet Harman fulfils that role for Labour, and Simon Hughes for the Lib Dems), so in the event of David Cameron dying, not being elected, etc, William Hague would take over as PM because he is able to command a majority (having had confidence of the Conservative party MPs instilled in him in being elected as Dep Leader). The situation in a coalition might be slightly different if the Lib Dems were to say they didn't have confidence in Hague - though that'd be unlikely.
What a governing party might do in the event of their leader not being re-elected to parliament is negotiate with one of their MPs in a safe seat about standing down, triggering a by-election, and standing the ex-PM as their candidate.
Hope that helps. Remember there's a lot on thesite.org around activism and politics here.
I suspect the Queen would certainly take strong account of the views of the person who would have been PM if they hadn't lost their seat, so in effect they may well select who would be PM
In reality this wouldn't happen because of the political implications, but there is nothing to prevent a PM leading from the Lords.
There'd also be a question of how to hold a PM in the Lords accountable. Would be very difficult for MPs to get his attention from the opposite chamber during Prime Ministers' Q's... but then, nowadays PMQs tends to be little more than political point scoring.