Unelected Prime Ministers

[Hope]

I find the argument from the likes of Labour and the SNP that Theresa May is an unelected Prime Minister hypocritical at the very least.  In 2000, did Labour in Wales call for new Assembly elections when Alun Michael stepped down as First Minister after only 9 months in the post; did they call for new elections in 2009 when his successor Rhodri Morgan stood down half way through the 2007/2011 cycle?

Similarly, did the SNP call for fresh elections when Nicola Sturgeon replaced Alex Salmond as First Minister in Holyrood in 2014?

We could think of other examples when the UK Prime Minister stood down mid-term and was replaced without recourse to a General Election.  Harold Wilson/Jim Callaghan (1976) and Margaret Thatcher/John Major (1990) spring immediately to mind.

[Ricky Spanish]

Gordon dumbass Brown comes to mind...

[Harrowby Hall]

The Constitutional situation is simple. As are those people who fail to understand it.

Prime ministers are elected as MPs by their constituents - in Mrs May's case, the electors of Maidenhead.

Prime ministers are (symbolically) selected by the Sovereign. General elections elect Parliaments. When the results of the General Election are known then the monarch asks the leader of the party with the largest number of elected members to form an administration. If this is successful then that individual becomes the prime minister, If not, then the process continues with the leader of the next appropriate party and so on.

This process means that it is relatively easy to change prime ministers in the course of a Parliament. The only occasion I can think of when a prime minister was not party leader was in 1940 when Winston Churchill became prime minister but Neville Chamberlain continued to be party leader.

In the UK we elect parliaments not presidents.

[Nearly Sane]

Has there been much argument about May being an unelected PM from Labour and the SNP?

[Walter]

 HH

well said

[Anchorman]

The problem isn't the abysmal unelected MAY, Hope. The problem is the government my nation did not elect - we have only one inept, useless nonentity who is supposed to represent us.

[Hope]

The problem isn't the abysmal unelected MAY, Hope. The problem is the government my nation did not elect - we have only one inept, useless nonentity who is supposed to represent us.

Sorry, Jim, but your nation did elect the current UK government; it also elected a lower tier devolved government.  That is one more chance of national democracy than any English person gets.

As for the 'inept, useless nonentity', I find it sad that you regard the SNP MPs in this way.

[Anchorman]

The useless nonentity is David Mundell, the Tory who is supposed to represent Scotland in the government Scotland did not elect.

[jeremyp]

The problem isn't the abysmal unelected MAY, Hope. The problem is the government my nation did not elect - we have only one inept, useless nonentity who is supposed to represent us.

Regions don't elect governments, individuals do. Quite a lot of Scots did vote for the party now in government, it's just they were only concentrated effectively in one constituency.

[Nearly Sane]

Regions don't elect governments, individuals do. Quite a lot of Scots did vote for the party now in government, it's just they were only concentrated effectively in one constituency.

actually no one elects govts

[Hope]

The useless nonentity is David Mundell, the Tory who is supposed to represent Scotland in the government Scotland did not elect.

Except that, by taking part in the UK General Election of May 2015, the Scots did elect the current Government.  They may not have voted for the party currently in power, but by taking part in the process, they legitimised the result.

As for Mr Mundell, I wouldn't know him from Adam, and since my interests lie more with the relationship between Cardiff and Westminster, rather than either's with Holyrood, I won't make a judgement.