Politics of the United Kingdom

Under the United Kingdom's parliamentary system, executive power is exercised by His Majesty's Government, whose Prime Minister is formally appointed by the King to act in his name.

These powers are known as the royal prerogative and cover a vast amount of things, such as the issue or withdrawal of passports, the appointment or dismissal of the prime minister or even the declaration of war.

The Prime Minister being the de facto leader of the UK, exercises executive functions that are nominally vested in the sovereign (by way of the Royal Prerogatives).

The majority of the civil service staff in fact work in executive agencies, which are separate operational organisations reporting to Departments of State.

The Lords Spiritual represent the established Church of England and number twenty-six: the Five Ancient Sees (Canterbury, York, London, Winchester and Durham), and the 21 next-most senior bishops.

The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 outlined plans for a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to replace the role of the Law Lords.

All three devolved parliaments are elected by proportional representation: the additional-member system is used in Scotland and Wales, and single transferable vote is used in Northern Ireland.

Scottish nationalism which advocates for Scotland regaining its independence has experienced a dramatic rise in popularity in recent years, with a pivotal moment coming at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election where the SNP capitalised on the collapse of the Liberal Democrat support to improve on their 2007 performance to win the first ever outright majority at Holyrood (despite the voting system being specifically designed to prevent majorities), with Labour remaining the largest opposition party.

A major SNP manifesto pledge was to hold a referendum on Scottish Independence, which was duly granted by the British Government and held on 18 September 2014.

Its primary law-making powers were enhanced following a Yes vote in the referendum on 3 March 2011, making it possible for it to legislate without having to consult the British parliament, nor the Secretary of State for Wales in the 20 areas that are devolved.

The Assembly is based on the principle of power-sharing, in order to ensure that both communities in Northern Ireland, unionist and nationalist, participate in governing the region.

Recent constitutional changes saw a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom come into being in October 2009 that took on the appeal functions of the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.

The essence of common-law is that law is made by judges sitting in courts, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal precedent (stare decisis) to the facts before them.

The Conservatives were in government for eighteen years between 1979 and 1997, under the leadership of the first-ever female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer John Major (1990–97).

[36] After thirteen years in opposition, the Conservatives returned to power as part of a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats in 2010, going on to form a majority government in 2015.

The unionist tendency is still in evidence today, manifesting sometimes as a scepticism or opposition to devolution, firm support for the continued existence of the United Kingdom in the face of movements advocating independence from the UK, and a historic link with the cultural unionism of Northern Ireland.

Despite these changes, as well as electoral gains and also due to Kinnock's negative media image, Labour was defeated at the 1987 and 1992 general elections, and he was succeeded by Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Smith.

This, coupled with the professionalising of the party machine's approach to the media, helped Labour win a historic landslide at the 1997 general election, after eighteen consecutive years of Conservative rule.

The Liberal Democrats are a party with policies on constitutional and political reforms, including changing the voting system for general elections (2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum), abolishing the House of Lords and replacing it with a 300-member elected Senate, introducing fixed five-year Parliaments, and introducing a National Register of Lobbyists.

In the coalition government, the party promoted legislation introducing a pupil premium – funding for schools directed at the poorest students to give them an equal chance in life.

Following the 2007 Scottish parliamentary elections, the SNP emerged as the largest party with 47 MSPs and formed a minority government with Alex Salmond as First Minister.

The party built up its support through opposing the war in Iraq and fighting for policies such as free school meals and an end to prescription charges.

After winning the largest number of seats and votes in the 2015 general election, the Conservatives under David Cameron, remained ahead of the Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn since September 2015.

However, a turbulent referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union, called for by David Cameron, led to his resignation, the appointment of a new prime minister Theresa May, and divided opinion on Europe amongst the party.

A leadership contest also took place in the Green Party, which led to the joint election on 2 September 2016 of Jonathan Bartley and Caroline Lucas as co-leaders, who took over the role in a job-share arrangement.

On the return of parliament the government lost its majority when Conservative MP Phillip Lee crossed the floor of the house to join the Liberal Democrats.

According to The Washington Post: The present dispute within the Labour party is likely causing the leftist political coalition to further fragment since the catastrophic result in 2019.

Polling generally indicates that at present (August 2021) Labour has lost significant portions of its vote share to the Green party and the Liberal Democrats.

The precise arrangement is loose and allows the Greens freedom to criticise official SNP policy on key areas of disagreement.

Consequently, the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 empowering the prime minister to invoke Article 50 was passed and enacted by royal assent in March 2017.