Commission meeting with Rt Hon Dominic Grieve KC and Rt Hon Robert Buckland KC
The Commission held a meeting on Tuesday 18 March with Rt Hon Dominic Grieve KC who was Attorney General from 2010 to 2014 and attended Cabinet; and with Rt Hon Robert Buckland KC, who was Secretary of State for Wales in 2022, Secretary of State for Justice 2019 to 2021, and Solicitor General from 2014 to 2019. Together they spanned twelve years’ experience of the Cabinet under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
The Commission decided to investigate the functioning of the Cabinet because it is at the heart of the democratic process and very much at the direction of whoever is Prime Minister. The Cabinet is much what the Prime Minister wants it to be, constrained by political circumstances.
The Coalition government from 2010 to 2014 created a unique state of affairs that meant the Cabinet had to function in a structured way in order to ensure the Coalition held together.
Civil servants have said that the Cabinet was making evidence-based decisions during this period following debate, which surprised people.
The Coalition Agreement meant that a framework was agreed for what the government wanted to do. This did not prevent robust discussion, especially sometimes from the minority party in the Coalition, the LibDems.
There was an inner group that met at least once a week, usually on Mondays, to prepare for the Cabinet meeting, which provided structure and intention.
On Tuesdays the two parties held separate meetings before the Cabinet meeting.
During David Cameron’s premiership there were generally about 30 people attending Cabinet meetings. This seems to have increased in subsequent years, with questionable outcomes. There were never votes taken in either committees or Cabinet meetings.
Special advisors do attend Cabinet meetings but sit outside the table.
There have been occasional power point presentations.
The Prime Minister decides which committees he wants to have and who should chair them. Under David Cameron the legislative committee was chaired by the Leader of the Commons and planned and reviewed forthcoming legislation and signed off drafts. Real discussion took place at committees with papers circulated beforehand and policies were changed. When ministers come to committee with only half a bill it often ends up with lots of government amendments on the floor of Parliament and can get messy in the Lords.
The list of Cabinet committees and their composition is normally published but currently Keir Starmer has set up five additional ‘mission boards’ and has not published the membership of these.
Cabinet meetings under lock down happened virtually and were recorded, it is not clear whether the recordings still exist?
Under covid the leaders of the devolved nations were often involved in Cabinet meetings. Once the meetings moved to virtual events, they lost spontaneity, and it was difficult to read the subtlety of body language.
It was pointed out that Cabinet would become much more important if we move to a proportional representation voting system as there would be coalition governments.
It was felt that although there had been some leaks about Cabinet discussion and decisions with the Coalition government, overall, it had been less of an issue than subsequent governments. Paranoia about leaks got increasingly worse.
Boris Johnson had a very large Cabinet for his first tenure but removed a lot of extra people in his second. It was noted that the idea of an agenda was a foreign concept to him. He was uninterested in the machinery of government, so decisions were not made by the Cabinet.
When Johnson resigned there followed an interregnum when decisions were delayed.
Cabinets normally meet on the morning of the budget but because there is always concern about leaks there is no discussion and little detail.
A recommendation arising from the meeting was that in future there should be a Prime Minister’s department. Number 10 is not a small cottage operation and needs to be professionally managed.