• Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, 61, assumed charge as the 58th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after his customary audience with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.

• It marked the end of the Conservative’s 14-year governance in Britain.

• The Labour Party secured 412 seats in the 650-member House of Commons, up 211 from the last election in 2019. 

• Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives won just 121 seats, down 250 seats from the previous election. While the Labour had a vote share of 33.7 per cent the Conservatives had 23.7 per cent.

• Starmer, who became Britain’s 58th Prime Minister, promised to bring about change, emphasizing the need to deliver results. 

The UK Constitution

• One of the most important features of the British Constitution is its unwritten character. 

• There is no codified or structured document which may be called as the British Constitution unlike in India, which is codified into various parts and schedules. Nevertheless, many sources of the constitutional law are written and these together with conventions and political traditions form the British Constitution.

• Indian Constitution, in comparison, is the lengthiest written constitution in the world.

Parliamentary Executive

• This is one important similarity between the British and the Indian Constitution.

• Britain has a Parliamentary form of government. 

• The King, who is sovereign, has been deprived of all his powers and authority. The real functionaries are Ministers, who belong to the majority party in the Parliament and remain in office as long as they retain its confidence.

• The Prime Minister and his ministers are responsible to the legislature for their acts and policies.

• Parliamentary system is based on the principle of collaboration and cooperation between the executive and legislative organs. 

• The executive in Britain has individual legal responsibility whereas in India there is no legal responsibility.

Sovereignty of Parliament

• The term Sovereignty means Supreme Power. 

• A very important feature of the British Constitution is sovereignty of the British Parliament (a written constitution being absent).

• The British Parliament is the only legislative body in the country with unfettered power of legislation. 

• It can make, amend or repeal any law.

• Though in India’s case, we have legislature at state level too, yet the law making power of the Indian Parliament roughly corresponds to that of the British Parliament.

• The courts have no power to question the validity of the laws passed by the British Parliament.

• The British Parliament may amend the constitution on its own authority, like an ordinary law of the land. It can make illegal what is legal and legalise what is illegal.

• Here, there is a marked difference, vis-à-vis the power of the Indian judiciary to keep a tab on the legality of the law framed. Also, the ‘Basic Structure’ doctrine, lends the Indian Judiciary further power to question the legality of the law (Judicial Review), in light of the fact that the Supreme Court of India is the highest interpreter of the Constitution of India.

Organs of the State

• The Executive in Britain is called as the Crown. Earlier, the Crown symbolised the King. Now, the King is part of the Crown.

The Crown, as an institution, consists of the following:

• The King

• Prime Minister

• Council of Ministers

• Permanent Executive, the Civil Servants

• Privy Council.

• In Britain, initially all power lied with the King. Later on, power shifted out of the institution of the King to the institution of Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister, Permanent Executive and the Privy Council, etc. 

• Today, the Crown comprises all these institutions. Hence, the first part of the statement describes the King as a person, while the second part describes the King or Crown as an institution.

British Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers

• Britain has a Cabinet form of government. 

• A Cabinet is a plural or collegiate form of government. The power doesn’t lie in one person, but the entire Council of Ministers. The principle is, “all ministers sink and swim together”. It is based on collective responsibility towards the Lower House.

• The Cabinet has its origins in the Privy Council set up to advise the King. 

The roles of Cabinet include the following:

• Approving policy (major policy making body)

• Resolving disputes

• Constraining the Prime Minister

• Unifying government

• Unifying the Parliamentary party, etc.

• Moreover, the Cabinet is the ultimate body of law making in the Parliamentary system. 

• It is formed out of the party/group, which enjoys a majority in the House. The cabinet meetings are held in private.

Position of the Prime Minister

• The PM is the captain of the ship of the State.

• The PM is the head of the Cabinet.

• The party of the PM enjoys majority in the House.

• He/she is the connecting link between the King and the Cabinet as well as the King and the Parliament.

• The life of the House depends on the PM as he/she may advice the dissolution of the House.

• The other ministers are appointed on the advice of the PM.

• The term of the other ministers also depends on the PM.

Difference in Constitutional position of British PM and Indian PM

• Constitutional position of the Indian PM is modelled on the British PM, with one difference. 

• In India, the PM can be a member of either House of Parliament, i.e. Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha.

• However, this is not so in Britain. It is a convention in Britain that the PM will always be a member of the Lower House (House of Commons) only.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)