The UK constitution—Is there any hope for British politics?

The fate of British politics was once upon a time entrusted with the ‘good chaps’. It is a theory: that there exists an unspoken, unwritten code known and understood by every politician in Westminster.Each adheres to the rules as a single unit, regardless of their party, and so politics, and every document that makes up Britain’s constitution, works.’But this now seems to be problematic,’ says Professor Andrew Blick, Head of the Department of Political Economy at King’s College, London. ‘And it turns out that these mechanisms – an informal set of rules – are easily overridden.’The UK has had three Prime Ministers in three months. This in itself might, in any other developed country, cry of a constitutional crisis.The nation’s politics have since descended into an ever-worsening spiral of chaos, which experts, commentators and politicians themselves have battled to make sense of, struggling to keep up with the hour-by-hour twists and turns.Questions are now being asked of Britain’s future, and what place the constitution has in a shifting democracy – one that many are beginning to fear is rotting from the inside.Britain is one of the only modern, advanced democracies which does not have a written, codified constitution. Rather, it is an abstract, wide-ranging and complex affair, made up of principals, rules and laws tucked away in many different documents and statues which the political system is meant to follow.They include but aren’t limited to the Bill of Rights act of 1689, the Acts of Union 1707 and 1800, Act of Settlement 1701, the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, the Human Rights Act 1998, the Scotland Act, Northern Ireland Act and Government of Wales Act 1998.Besides these statutes are the ways in which politicians and the monarchy are intended to act and behave, conventions passed down through the years. The monarch, for example, is expected to act on ministerial advice rather than their own judgement when dealing with political matters.And so Britain’s constitutional set-up appears alien to that of other developed democracies: the US, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and many others have written constitutions that governments can refer to in times of crises.JUST IN: Sunak jets to Dublin for urgent talks with Irish PM The UK has a complex constitution that may be in decline (Image: GETTY) Questions are now being asked about the future of British politics (Image: GETTY) ‘If someone gets into government and decides that they don’t like being constrained in this way…it turns out that these mechanisms are easily overridden’Prof Blick, and Professor Peter Hennesy from Queen Mary University of London, recently penned a book exploring such crises.The Bonfire of the Decencies: Repairing and Restoring the British Constitution reveals just how stretched the constitution became during Boris Johnson’s tenure as Prime Minister. Vitally, they argue it was not entirely his fault.Prof Blick’s life’s work has led him to believe that the UK might follow in step with the likes of the US and introduce a written constitution that would embolden and strengthen democracy in Westminster: ‘But I wouldn’t say that it’d be the answer to every single problem you can imagine,’ he says.But why might the UK need one? Is democracy in that much peril? And what exactly did Mr Johnson do to expose the weaknesses in our system? Professors Andrew Blick and Peter Hennessy’s new book explores the weaknesses of the constitution (Image: Haus Publishing) Many wrongly cite the Magna Carta as Britain’s written constitution, an archaic text from 1215 (Image: GETTY)Both the Left and Right castigated Mr Johnson for actions they claimed almost destroyed the constitution. ‘But let’s be clear, he’s not the first politician ever to have broken a rule,’ says Prof Blick. ‘It’s not the first time that some of these systems have been stretched or found wanting.’History is peppered with politicians attempting to squeeze the constitution in their favour. There was something off about Robert Walpole’s financial dealings. David Lloyd George’s sale of honours raised a few eyebrows. And Anthony Eden’s tragically avoidable Suez Crisis created its own miniature constitutional crisis.The likes of Profs Blick and Hennessy say that Mr Johnson essentially followed in the same footsteps as these people, albeit to a more radical degree. He exposed new gaps and weaknesses in the constitution, they say, that were covered by thin ice.’He did some things that have never happened before,’ notes Prof Blick. ‘The extent to which he removed civil servants from their posts, the mass expulsion of MPs early on in his premiership, and also in the law-breaking. There are things which are different about Johnson, but it’s also about the scale as well as the quality.’The scale was indeed vast. Perhaps the best example of this came when Mr Johnson prorogued Parliament, something that the Supreme Court – one of the guardians of the constitution – ruled was unlawful.And then there were the lockdown-breaking Downing Street parties which introduced another dimension to the rule-bending, making him the first-ever sitting Prime Minister to break the law, with Rishi Sunak now the second. Mr Johnson apologised, but in the eyes of the constitution, the damage had already been done.Yet, while many didn’t approve of the rule-breaking, they applauded Mr Johnson for what they viewed as his no-nonsense approach to politics: here was a man who wanted to reimagine Westminster and shake things up a little. The Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 16th century, he is considered to be Britain’s first PM (Image: GETTY) Protestors gathered outside the Supreme Court on the day it ruled Johnson’s proroguing was unlawful (Image: GETTY)This fails to identify the consequences of the actions. His critics and upholders of the constitution claim that by rejecting the rules while in the highest post in office, the ministerial code was ignored and so failed to work – the brakes were put on British democracy. Politics then became chaotic. Westminster is based on order. Full of people supposed to know what to do and how to do it properly, ‘[and there is] substantial respect for the way things are done in politics,’ says Duncan Hames, Director of Policy at Transparency International UK.Crucially, he added: ‘If someone gets into government and decides that they don’t like being constrained in this way, and they don’t want to go along with a good chaps rule, it turns out that these mechanisms are easily overridden.’Some believe that the events that played out in the country and the prodding of the constitution are largely symptomatic of episodes that have hung over not just the UK but the world: Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine.These very particular circumstances, says Prof Blick, laid the groundwork for the weakening of the constitution and so democracy as we had known it for a long time. Mr Johnson simply fitted the bill when the opportunity arose, and stepped into the holes that had become visible.When this happened, Damian Green, the Conservative MP for Ashford, says much of Westminster fell into a ‘shock’.’It was a political crisis, at the end of which Johnson had to stand down as Prime Minister because dozens of his ministers would not serve in the government if he continued to lead it,’ he says. ‘ And that, I think, was a very significant moment for the constitution.’DON’T MISSBritons split over whether UK should have a written constitution [REPORT] Desperate Democrats put Meghan as top choice for 2024 White House run [INSIGHT] ‘Don’t touch me’ Egyptian MP removed after heckling jailed Briton [ANALYSIS] ‘Hasta la vista, baby’ Johnson pictured at his last PMQs (Image: Youtube) Conservative Cabinet members and MPs applaud Johnson (Image: Youtube)Whether or not the UK should have a written constitution has persisted for decades. Its proponents say it would make key mechanisms clear, and give clarity in the event of political crisis or things that may lead to constitutional crises like referendums.But the debate is more or less fifty-fifty, and a poll carried out by Express.co.uk proved as much: 49 percent of readers believe that the UK should have a written constitution, while 51 percent do not.For Prof Blick, the UK’s constitution must be short and simple: ‘It should say what the most important rules are, it should define a set of rules that are more important than other rules that you can’t just change as easily as you can more day-to-day policy rules. It should be enforceable and apply to everyone, including senior politicians, including even Parliament.’But do we really need one? In the end, the rule-breaking in Westminster was acknowledged and eventually put to rights. Johnson’s remaining Cabinet ministers bid him farewell as he delivers his resignation speech (Image: GETTY)From 2020, many civil servants quit in response to the way the government was behaving. Eventually, Mr Johnson’s front bench one-by-one snatched their once iron-strong support away from him and resigned.On the surface it might have looked as though Mr Johnson was betrayed, and Cabinet members wanted out in order to secure a position in a future government.This may in part be true, but Prof Blick hints that something larger was at work: ‘The system self-corrected, and he was forced out of office.’He and others suggest that what happened to Mr Johnson was the constitution at work. That its bounds had been stretched and ‘snapped back’ to the way things were meant to be. Munira Mirza quit as Johnson’s policy chief after his comments about Jimmy Saville to Keir Starmer (Image: GETTY) William Hague pictured in 1998 – the year he shifted Tory party rules regarding leadership votes (Image: GETTY) Liz Truss left No 10 almost as quickly as she had walked through its doors (Image: GETTY)British politics no doubt faces an uphill battle. Yet the likes of Prof Blick are hopeful: ‘There are some challenges, there’s no question about it. But there have been times in the past when people have been worried about the constitution, probably rightly so, but it survived.’Mr Hames was similarly cautious when looking to the future, and while he says he is ‘frustrated’ with how things are, his hope rests with the British public: ‘There seems to be an instinct amongst the people for when politicians have gone too far, a recognition of when they’re no longer looking out for them and for the country as a whole. Occasionally, this kicks in, and acts as a corrective thing.’Some may disagree that the future is positive, and that the turbulence of British politics proves something isn’t quite working. But Parliament continued with its day-to-day tasks during the turbulence- something which instils a degree of confidence in the likes of Mr Green.’It’s a strength in the constitution,’ he says. ‘The major institutions, from the monarchy downwards. People, whatever they may think of individuals, respect those institutions enough that nobody is going out demanding that they be torn down.’ Enter Sunak: Many believe that he may bring things back to the centre and steady the ship (Image: GETTY)Mr Sunak, the third Prime Minister in as many months, has already moved to reverse several of his predecessor’s policies in order to stabilise the country and create a more broad church Government.’I think Sunak is hoping to trim back towards the centre, and if so, things will look a lot more stable for democracy in Britain,’ says Prof Blick.Ever aware of the changing face of British politics, however, he urged a degree of vigilance: ‘There’s always jokers in the pack. Will Scotland get an independence referendum? Will it vote to leave? And what difference will that make to the UK? What issues might arise from a potential hung parliament at the next general election? You can’t rule these things out.’All of these things could lead to radical changes in the system, potentially changing our voting system as we know it.’You can’t predict it, but I think the situation isn’t hopeless – we just need to be aware that we have some problems.”The Bonfire of the Decencies: Repairing and Restoring the British Constitution is published by Haus Publishing and is available to buy here.