Can the Prime Minister appoint whoever they want to the Cabinet?
The simple answer to the question is no. All Prime Minister have the power of patronage (the ability to appoint people to jobs across government). However, not all Prime Minister have the same authority to use these patronage powers.
Remember that Prime Minister are in power only because they have been chosen to be the party leader. The Prime Minister must therefore be mindful of different factions within the party who could try to remove them from office if the Prime Minister is operates in to their displeasure. This was most clearly seen in Rishi Sunak’s decision to appoint Suella Braverman as the Home Secretary to his cabinet. Braverman had been fired from the cabinet just 6 days earlier by the former Prime Minister Liz Truss. However, as the lead figure of the Conservative factions, the ERG, Braverman hold considerable power. The keep this faction onside, Sunak decided to reappoint Braverman to the cabinet.
Each party also contain key figures that other MPs and party members respect and look up to. A Prime Minister is well advised to keep these individuals, often called the Big Beasts, in the cabinet also. Again, Suank had no choice but to keep Michael Gove, a so-called Big Beast in his cabinet. A more famous example was Theresa May’s decision to make Boris Johnson her foreign Secretary in 2016. May had to make a decision, did she put Johnson in the cabinet where he would be subject to collective responsibility, or keep him out of the cabinet, which would allow him to be on the backbenchers where he could be more critical of May and potentially become a more dangerous rival to her.
The image above shows the first cabinet selected by Rishi Sunak on becoming Prime Minister in October 2022. We have mentioned the roles given to key figures such as Suella Braverman and Michael Gove but another consideration that Sunak has to show is for potential rivals. He has taken a similar approach to Theresa May and has kept potential rivals in his cabinet, albeit in more junior roles. His biggest rival is Penny Mordaunt. Mordaunt came second in the leadership contest to Sunak and so is clearly held in high esteem by Conservative MPs. Suank opted to keep Mordaunt in the cabinet, whereby she would be silenced from criticising Sunak via collective responsibility. However, by putting Mordaunt in a relatively obscure role of leader of the House of Commons, Mordaunt is less likely to find herself making many policies or being put in front of the media which might help to build her brand or reputation.
Prime Ministers often choose to appoint a trusted ally as Chancellor. However, again Sunak was unable to do so. It was reported that his first choice of Chancellor would have been his close friend, Mel Stride. However, instead Suank had to retain Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor as it was suggested that the financial markets would not tolerate another change of Chancellor after the turmoil caused by the Liz Truss’ first Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng.
