Curious about the legal process.
2007-06-30 10:29:54 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Government
The first step towards becoming Prime Minister is to be elected a Member of Parliament. Technically, it is possible to be PM without being in the House of Commons, but that hasn't happened for over 100 years (unless you count the few days that Lord Home was Prime Minister in the 1960's whilst holding his seat in the House of Lords).
You then have to be elected party leader. The idea is that the person who can command a majority of votes on the floor of the House of Commons is generally asked by the Monarch to form a government. It is generally held that anyone who is selected as leader of the governing party has that support. However, as all of the major parties have moved away from MP's having the sole right to select the leader, it remains to be seen if that will be the case in future.
Recently, the largest party in the House of Commons has also held a majority over all other parties combined so the selection of Prime Minister is relatively easy. It was not always so The February 1974 election produced a hung parliament. The outgoing PM, Edward Heath was given first chance to form a coalition. He failed to get the support of the Liberal Party. Harold Wilson, leader of the labour Party was then invited by the Queen to form a government.
As mentioned above, the Queen exercised her Royal prerogative in 1963 when appointing Lord Home (who quickly became Sir Alec Douglas-Home so he could sit in the House of Commons) as Prime Minister. To enable Sir Alec to sit in the Commons. a Conservative MP was persuaded to retire early, Sir Alec won the by-election and took his seat in the Commons.
2007-06-30 11:43:37 · answer #1 · answered by skip 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Prime Minister is appointed by the sovereign and must be someone who will command the support of the majority of the House of Commons. If a PM is given a no confidence vote by Parliament, he/she is obliged to resign or may ask the sovereign to call a general election.
2007-06-30 17:43:01 · answer #2 · answered by Tom K 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The PM is officially appointed by the Crown but actually chosen by the House of Commons in Parliament; generally the choice is the leader of the majority party. When elections are held people usually know who the party wants to have as PM, so when you vote for your Parliamentary representative it's an indirect vote for the PM too. The process is not quite that simple, but for more details you really need a native source.
2007-06-30 17:37:06 · answer #3 · answered by dukefenton 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
They're elected into offfice by the public in a general election or they replace an existing prime minister ex. Tony Blair/Gordon Brown.
They must go see the queen where she asks them to form a government
2007-06-30 17:34:57 · answer #4 · answered by Monica 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Being able to find the Queen's bottom and..well..
2007-06-30 18:59:29 · answer #5 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋