Leaving the House: the challenges former MPs face after leaving Parliament

Every election sees a number of parliamentarians leave the House of Commons. Through outlining the experiences of members who left in 2010, Christopher Byrne and Kevin Theakston explain that the transition into a ‘political afterlife’ is not as straightforward as some might think. Many former members struggled to find a job, especially following the expenses scandal, while women were more likely to have been selected for marginal or unwinnable seats, and so their shorter tenures created additional problems

The league table of post-war leaders of the opposition according to academics: Corbyn not the worst and Starmer trending below Kinnock

Mark Gill and Kevin Theakston present the results of a survey of academics, asked to give their individual ratings of each UK leader of the opposition since 1945

Junior ministers during the New Labour years tended to enjoy more than just a ‘view from the foothills’

Chris Mullin’s celebrated series of published diaries revolve around his time as a junior minister, and make frequent references to his insignificance in the role, a perspective which has shaped much understanding of the various Ministerial rungs below Cabinet level. Here, Judi Atkins, Kevin Theakston, and Mark Gill argue that though this characterisation is pervasive, it does not tell the whole story, with the New Labour years showing a number of interesting developments in this regard

A disjunctive Prime Minister: assessing David Cameron’slegacy

David Cameron’s political career was cut short by last year’s dramatic Brexit vote. Chris Byrne, Nick Randall and Kevin Theakston look back on his time in office, and how the history books will judge him

Understanding the power of the prime minister : structure and agency in models of prime ministerial power

Understanding the power of the prime minister is important because of the centrality of the prime minister within the core executive of British government, but existing models of prime ministerial power are unsatisfactory for various reasons. This article makes an original contribution by providing an overview and critique of the dominant models of prime ministerial power, highlighting their largely positivist bent and the related problem of the prevalence of overly parsimonious conceptions of the structural contexts prime ministers face. The central argument the paper makes is that much of the existing literature on prime ministerial power is premised on flawed understandings of the relationship between structure and agency, that this leads to misunderstandings of the real scope of prime ministerial agency, as well as its determinants, and that this can be rectified by adopting a strategic-relational view of structure and agency

Party leaders are getting younger, but Cabinet Ministers arenot

During the 20th Century, the average age of Prime Ministers upon assuming office has trended downwards. However, according to Judi Atkins, Timothy Heppell and Kevin Theakston, the same is not true of Cabinet Ministers, with the average age remaining relatively consistent since 1945 across both main parties. The authors argue that the claim that we are witnessing the rise of the novice Cabinet minister is perhaps more a consequence of the personalisation of politics than evidence of an emerging ‘cult of youth’

Prime ministerial powers of patronage: ministerial appointments and dismissals under Edward Heath

This article examines how Edward Heath utilised the Prime Ministerial power of ministerial appointment between 1970 and 1974. It does so within the context of the difficulties that Heath experienced in managing the ideological tensions within his party during his leadership tenure and his subsequent removal from the leadership of the Conservative Party in early 1975. Critically, by utilising Cabinet Office papers (PREM 5), the article demonstrates how his Chief Whip, Francis Pym, made a series of recommendations on how ministerial allocation could be used to aid party management and address backbench criticism about his leadership, and how Heath disregarded much of this advice