Are UK prime ministers as powerful as sometimes claimed? Prime Ministers are as powerful as sometimes claimed as they are treated as spokespeople for government by the media. This makes the public think the Prime Minister is in charge of the whole government on his own, instead of being primus inter pares – first among individuals. For example, Prime ministers have taken on board the idea of ‘spatial leadership’ separating the prime minister from the rest of government rather like a president. This has created a Presidential ‘style’ amongst Prime Ministers. Some recent prime ministers such as Thatcher and Blair have styled themselves on US presidents.
In addition, prime ministers also get power from other sources - They dominate cabinet government, it is argued that cabinet has declined and so the power of the prime minister has increased. For example Blair dominated the cabinet by chairing cabinet meetings, managing the agendas, as well as summing up the decisions at the end. They also gain power as they are able to choose who part of the cabinet is, and fill it with likeminded people ensuring all policies wanted are passed as thatcher did shortly before she had to step down.
Furthermore, they are able to take advantage of extensive prerogative powers, especially in foreign policy terms as he is the Head of Armed Forces and decides on direction of overall conduct of armed forces and intelligence services Such as when Blair went to war with Iraq without majority of votes in parliament.
However, all prime ministers may be removed from office by their party or by parliament if they exert enough influence. For example thatcher was forced to resign after 9 of her cabinet ministers told her to resign, and a former Cabinet colleague of Thatcher's, Geoffrey Howe started the process that lead to her resignation as Prime Minister in 1990. This highlights the importance of the cabinet ministers and the term primus inter pares is appropriate because the PM is only one member of a collective group. Also, Events are a key element in prime ministerial authority, and therefore power. For example, when brown became Prime Minister, the UK economy was going through a financial crisis, and it was due to this brown lost his seat as the Prime minister. This also happened to brown, as he lost many votes due to entering the Iraq war which was not favourable by the public. Therefore power relies heavily on key world events that alter the way the public view the Prime Minister.
In addition, Coalition means the prime minister must share some power with the coalition partner, and therefore prime ministers are not as powerful as sometimes claimed. For example, in recent elections Cameron had to go in a coalition with lib dem leader nick clegg in 2011 and consequently, he couldn’t choose all the cabinet ministers, and therefore means there is a greater risk of his policies being rejected by the cabinet as they may not have similar ideologies to him. This means the prime ministers powers are greatly weakened during a coalition.

In Conclusion, UK prime ministers are as powerful as sometimes claimed, but to an extent as although they can control/manipulate the cabinet to their favour, have royal prerogative powers, and are highlighted by the media as the centrepiece of parliament, there are many constraints to these powers – such as the cabinet and world events.

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