The PM: Why ‘unfitness for office’ doesn't matter

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

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Summary

What divides the great Prime Ministers from the mediocre and the just plain bad? And how does Boris Johnson measure up in those stakes? Author of The Impossible Office: The History of the British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Seldon and former Government advisor Salma Shah take us on a deep dive into the harsh realities of the country’s most powerful office. Is Boris Johnson really as bad a PM as Dominic Cummings says he is? And is unfitness for office just a myth? • “Unfitness for office has never disqualified people as Prime Ministers. The question with Johnson is, was he unfit enough?” – Anthony Seldon • “One of Prime Ministers’ strengths is a complete lack of self-awareness… Otherwise every day would be a duvet day.” – Salma Shah • “Every PM who’s been less successful has lacked that clear, ruthless vision. You must either have it – or history must throw it on your plate.” – Anthony Seldon • “Sajid Javid had a knack of making your believe any decision was yours and not his.” – Salma Shah • “So much of being a Prime Minister is a confidence trick. If confidence collapses, as it did for Theresa May, it’s all over.” – Anthony Seldon Presented by Bronwen Maddox with Cath Haddon. 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 Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.5	I'm Bronwyn Maddox.
0:16.7	Some are swept to 10 Downing Street by the electorate. Others find themselves there, courtesy of their own party.
0:22.6	Some have been nodded in by the monarch. But however they get there,
0:26.4	prime ministers are, in theory, at least, the most powerful people in Britain at that point.
0:31.7	But not all of them manage to master the levers of power. And some succeed. Others fail,
0:36.6	some sometimes spectacularly, sometimes slowly. In the case of Boris. And some succeed, others fail, sometimes spectacularly, sometimes
0:38.6	slowly. In the case of Boris Johnson, the 55th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the jury is out.
0:44.3	But last week, in that spectacular seven-hour testimony to Parliament, his former Chief
0:49.0	Advisor, Dominic Cummings, described Johnson as being unfit to hold office.
0:53.9	So on this week's podcast, we're going to take a close look at the role of the Prime Minister,
0:58.7	what makes a good one, what makes a bad one, and how they can get stuff done, that old
1:03.5	question of government.
1:05.7	I've picked a podcast cabinet of all the talents today.
1:08.7	IFG senior fellow, Kath Adden, is here.
1:10.7	Hi, Katz. Hello, Bronwyn. I'm also Senior Fellow, Kath Adden, is here. Hi, Kath. Hello, Bronwyn.
1:12.6	I'm also delighted to be joined again by Salma Shah, former special advisor to a number of
1:17.1	Conservative Cabinet ministers, and now a partner at Portland. Hi, Selma. Hello, Bronwyn.
1:22.0	Thanks for joining us. And it's great as well to be joined by Sir Anthony Selden,
1:26.2	a biographer of many prime ministers,
1:28.2	an author of The Impossible Office, the History of the British Prime Minister.
1:32.7	Great to see you again, Anthony.
	...

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