20th July 2026
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Regular readers of this blog will recall that there is nothing unusual and indeed nothing wrong with our political system’s capacity to eject Prime Ministers from office.
As set out in a previous post, it is that we keep appointing poor Prime Ministers that is the problem, not that we are deft at getting rid of them: an input issue not an output issue.
In essence – our body politic retains an admirably efficient discharge system for getting rid of poor PMs, it is the diet which is at fault.
And regular readers will also recall that changing Prime Ministers mid-term is pretty much the norm and not the exception.
Every Prime Minister since 1974 has either gained office or left office mid-term (and sometimes both).
It is important to remember that we have a parliamentary system and not a presidential system.
And so what is happening today, with the appointment of Andrew Burnham to replace Keir Starmer is not even a constitutional drama, let alone a constitutional crisis.
That said, one remarkable feature is that, notwithstanding 650 members of parliament were elected at the last general election, the new Prime Minister had to be shipped in from outside parliament. One would hope that, in a parliamentary system, at least one elected member of parliament would be up to the job of having the confidence of a majority of the House of Commons (the constitutional test).
But, no.
The new Prime Minister appears to have a genuine belief in devolution and perhaps also electoral reform. This is, of course, welcome, though it is unlikely that substantive constitutional reforms can be enacted this side of a general election, especially if not in the manifesto.
On the other hand, not all constitutional reform needs primary legislation and endless parliamentary time. Let’s see what, if anything gets done to repair our constitutional arrangements before the next general election.
Looming behind all this, is that there is still a realistic prospect of an radically illiberal government being returned at the next election and, as this blog has previously averred, our constitution is in poor shape to withstand any radical illiberal assault.
Parliament really should be fixing the constitutional roof while the sun shines, especially in terms of delegated legislation.
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Otherwise, today’s news means another former Prime Minister is now added to the pile.
Like your little mnemonic rhyme. But may I offer one small correction: for the penultimate PM I think ‘defeated’ would be more appropriate than ‘wrong-headed’ as the latter epithet is sadly non-specific (could be applied to all of them) while Sunak has the distinction of being the only one of the six to be cast out by the public at an election!
You do not offer a “correction”.
The “wrong-headed” is an echo of “beheaded” from the original. Your suggestion echoes nothing from the original – sorry!