How do the British elect their leaders?

Question

The news this morning says that British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, would not be calling for elections at this time. That doesn't make sense to me. Do British PM's decide when is a good time to call for an election that might put them out of office? And if so, why would they ever do that if they could not call for elections and just stay in office?

Answer 1

Straight answer is that elections must happen at least every 5 years (and six weeks if you're being picky!) since the last election. The exact timing of the election in that period USUALLY up to the PM. He (or She) advises the Queen that they wish to call an election ro that they cannot command a majority in the House of Commons, and she dissolves parliament. Often the period between elections is more like 4 years... since once we get to 3 years since the last election , everyone starts looking forward to the next. The shortest period recently between elections was in 1974 when elections were held in February and October. The last Prime Minister to be forced to call an election before the 5 year period was up was James Callaghan. John Major has twice taken ti to the wire... the second time in 1997 resulting in a landslide victory for Labour.

Answer 2

The British people elect the members of Parliment and the majority party selects the prime minister. If there is no majority party, a coalition is needed to select a prime minister.

The prime minister calls for new elections, with a five year time limit. A lack of confidence vote in Parliment could lead to an early election.

If Gordon Brown just came into office, why should he call a new election? Change in government should not be made of
on a whim.

Answer 3

they elect the prime minister, since they are a democracy.

Answer 4

The government has been fiddling the votes for many years now.
Why do you think mp's are always grinning?

Answer 5

they wait for Old Uncle Rupert to tell them which party is really really bad and which party is really really good.