Cameron to reshuffle Cabinet norms

David Cameron will admit tomorrow that he cannot exert his authority on his own Cabinet, the BBC believes.

The BBC claims that Prime Minister David Cameron will announce tomorrow that he will allow Cabinet Ministers to campaign either for or against staying in the EU in the run up to the referendum due to be held within the next two years.

If true, this will be an astonishing admission of weakness. The principle that all members of the Cabinet support government policy is a bedrock of the UK constitutional practice which has held firm for years.

Cameron promised a referendum in an earlier moment of weakness, when he felt under attack from UKIP before the last General Election and believed their claims that a number of his MPs were about to defect. He said he would re-negotiate the terms of the UK’s membership of the EU and then put the new terms to a public vote. The pledge worked, in that only a couple of MPs joined the “kippers” – but now Cameron is left trying to negotiate a deal from the EU which he can sell to the electorate.

He will also need to sell the deal to his own Ministers who are responsible for implementing Tory policy across the Government. It seems he is now acknowledging that he will not be successful in doing this. If he can’t sell the deal to his own ministers, his closest supporters in the country, how can he sell it to the public?

Anti-EU Ministers will be promoting government policy in their own portfolio areas, at the same time as they are campaigning vigorously to convince the public that this same Government is wrong on this major constitutional policy.

The Tory Party has long been split over the issue of the UK’s membership (or otherwise) of the EU. It seems Cameron is accepting that he cannot heal the divisions. However, letting Ministers campaign against government policy (and each other, and their Leader) is one thing. After the referendum, will Ministers from the losing side be prepared to continue in Cabinet and implement a policy they have just agreed with so profoundly? If Cameron achieves the vote to stay in the EU which he desperately wants, his may find that he has driven senior party figures into the arms of UKIP through the policy that was invented to keep his party intact. Oops.

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•The BBC’s prediction that Cameron will admit defeat on the issue of Cabinet responsibility comes at the same time as the announcement of the first Shadow Cabinet reshuffle being undertaken by Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn. Michael Dugher MP has announced that he has been sacked as Shadow Culture Secretary. Dugher had been critical of the Corbyn leadership.
It is no secret that Corbyn has the backing of his Party and a majority of Labour voters, with over 100,000 Labour people registering as supporters or joining the Party to vote for him. It is equally not a secret that the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP – that is, Labour MPs) do not support him. Some MPs have decided that, given his huge support among party member and voters, they will back Corbyn as he has the best chance of leading them to General Election victory. Other MPs have massaged their disproportionately large egos by trying to undermine his leadership, while claiming that the policies and practices which lost Labour support during the Blair years and lost the last General Election are the only policies which can win the next General Election.
It has therefore been very difficult for Corbyn to form a Cabinet from MPs who are willing to support him. Many sections of the media have claimed this is a sign of weakness, goading him to purge the Shadow Cabinet of those who do not support him wholeheartedly. Corbyn has not panicked, or engaged in debate on the issue, and is continuing to pull the PLP round and give them confidence that popular policies can win votes.
Further announcements about the extent of the Labour Shadow Cabinet reshuffle are awaited.

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