Unless Her Majesty throws us all a curveball, Liz Truss will be the next prime minister. So let’s knock something on the head here and now: she is under no obligation to call an election before January 2025. The replacement of one prime minister with another in the middle of a parliamentary term is not a democratic deficiency. It is parliamentary democracy in action. The prime minister and their cabinet colleagues are the Queen’s ministers and when one ministry replaces another, power does not transfer directly but through the sovereign. It is the Queen who issues an invitation to form a government in her name and she does so on the basis of advice about who can command the confidence of the House of Commons. The Tories still hold a majority of seats on the green benches and, absent a revolt against Truss, she will enjoy the confidence of most MPs.
Either you accept that the Westminster system is based on cabinet government, collective responsibility and parliamentary sovereignty or you don’t
Still, we can expect some huffing and bombast over this.
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