‘The recent general election saw the Labour Party being elected with a majority of 171 seats in Parliament. The following morning, in his first speech as Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer claimed the nation had given the Labour Party a “clear mandate”. Similarly, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, stated the British people had voted for change and she had “begun the work necessary to deliver on that mandate” by implementing the economic ideas set out in the Labour Party’s manifesto. Lastly, in one of his first acts as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband’s lifting of the onshore wind ban was justified on the grounds of the new Labour government being “elected with a mandate to take immediate action to boost Britain’s energy independence”. Overall, there has been a heavy emphasis on the direct relationship between the electoral mandate given by the British people and the implementation of policies.

Whether intentional or not, this speaks to a socialistic-constitutional tradition that developed within the Labour Party from 1900 to 1951. This tradition saw a reformulation of the Diceyan view of parliamentary sovereignty in the British constitution. More specifically, it departed from a legal notion of sovereignty and understood the authority of the elected majority in Parliament, its legislators, and its political and policy agenda as deriving from the citizenry themselves. As such, reframing sovereignty as popular sovereignty was the basis for implementing an uninhibited, electorally sanctioned, social and economic agenda. The short and simple aim of this post is to provide a legal-historical account of this reimagination of sovereignty by key figures within the Labour Party.’

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UK Constitutional Law Association, 22nd July 2024

Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org