The Afterlife Of Prime Ministers

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

Prime Ministerial careers tend to end abruptly and in tears. So what does an ex-PM do next? Are today’s Prime Ministers too young to fade away gracefully? Should they avoid lobbying jobs? And when it comes to backbench politics, should they stay or should they go? The IfG’s Tim Durrant discusses the mystery of the Prime Ministerial afterlife (and the lure of the comeback) with ex-Justice Secretary David Gauke, Politico’s senior political correspondent Esther Webber, Engage Britain’s Director of Advocacy and former Times political editor Francis Elliot, and the IfG’s Catherine Haddon. “The end of your Prime Ministership can come suddenly and unexpectedly… It’s quite hard to see what you’re going to do.” – David Gauke “PMs tend to be younger now and they’re less likely to want to fade into obscurity – which going to the Lords would achieve quite easily.” – Esther Webber “Moments of maximum crisis like COVID are exactly when ex-PMs miss the office most.” – Francis Elliott “It’s an absorbing job, it consumes all your waking hours and it’s utterly fascinating. You’ve got status and international connections. For that to end is a wrench.” – David Gauke Presented by Tim Durrant. Audio production by Alex Rees. Inside Briefing is a Podmasters Production for the IfG. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this special summer edition of Inside Briefing.
0:13.9	My name is Tim Durant, Associate Director of our Ministers program,
0:17.0	and today we are talking about what prime ministers do once they leave office.
0:20.9	Boris Johnson is the first Prime Minister in 25 years to have five of his predecessors
0:24.8	are still alive. But Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron and May, all providers with quite different
0:30.3	models for the afterlife of former PMs. From developing global think tanks, advising a failed
0:35.4	fintech company, or carrying on as a constituency
0:38.0	MP, they're all taking their own approach. That doesn't mean, however, that they're not
0:42.6	prepared to get involved in national politics, and as we've seen, recently, challenged Johnson
0:47.1	when they think he's got it wrong. So what do we want our former prime ministers to be doing?
0:51.7	Unlike former US presidents, PMs don't get a library, but they do
0:55.5	still have a platform. We're going to discuss today how important they are in public life and how
1:00.0	much influence they have on politics. And are we likely to see comebacks? Harold Wilson was the last
1:05.4	PM to have two stints in number 10. Would we ever see that again? Or do they only get one shot nowadays?
1:13.1	To discuss all this and more,
1:17.4	we've got a brilliant group here today. I'm joined by Catherine Haddon, senior fellow at the IFG and historian of Whitehall. Hi, Kath. Hi, Tim. David Gorg, former Justice and Work and Pension
1:23.0	Secretary and MP for South West Hartfordshire joins us as well. Welcome, David. Hi, Tim.
1:31.8	Frances Elliott, Director of Advocacy at Engage Britain and former Political Editor of the Times,
1:36.0	as well as co-author of a biography of David Cameron is here. Great to have you with us, Frances.
1:44.5	Hello, Tim. And Esther Weber, Senior UK Correspondent at Politico. It's great to have you here as well, Lester. Thank you for joining us. Hi, Tim. David, can we start by talking to you about what it's like in government?
1:48.7	How much of an opportunity is there for XPMs and ministers to plan for life after they're in the thick of it?
1:55.3	I suspect not very much. You are so busy as a minister, let alone as a prime minister, you don't have much of an opportunity
	...

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