Can anyone explain to me the legality of Tony Blair's handover...?

There is no legal stipulation regarding the hand over of the Prime Ministership, as even though we now have a Presidential system by stealth, it is the party who are in power.

Many within the Labour Party believed the"coronation" of Mr Brown to be undemocratic and bad for the party, and I am inclined to agree with them. The unchallenged hand over of power is the type of cronyism that Government has been trying to stamp out in other sectors and has done New Labour favours.

However if Brown were to be ousted from power by his party and replaced by yet another leader then there would be pressure on the Labour Party to call a General Election, and the opposition parties could even table a motion of no confidence in the Government.

The choice of who is Prime Minister is one of the few powers that still remains with the Queen personally. It is the Queen who decides who is PM, and if a PM decides to resign it is up the the Queen whether to accept that resignation or not.

However, the way the Queen exercises this power is subject to strict constitutional convention. The chosen PM is almost always the leader of the party that has the most seats in the House of Commons. Obviously that usually changes after a general election. If the party in power loses the election the old PM sees the Queen and resigns. The Queen calls in the leader of the new biggest party and gives them the job.

The only time that the leader of the biggest party would not get the job would be if there was a hung parliament and it was clear that a coalition of smaller parties would be able to form a more effective government than the biggest single party.

But if a leader wishes to stand down between elections he will be allowed to do so. The Queen will then pick the new leader of the same party (who continue to have a majority of seats).

The confusion lies in our voting system. When you vote you are voting for your local candidate who represents a particular party. You are not voting for the leader of that party, and there is never any guarantee that any particular individual will have a specific job in Government just because you have voted for their party.

Exactly the same legality as when Thatcher stood down halfway through a government administrationand John Major took over - albeit in that case there was a leadership contest in the Tory party, though by your logic there should have been a General Election at that point (which the Tories would have lost). God, some people have short memories.

in a General Election we don't vote for a Prime Minister, we vvote for an MP of a particular party...and the Party with the most elected MP's forms the government, with the leader becoming the Prime Minister (First Among Equals, as it were)

S there was no legal need for a general election, because the leadership of the party carries with it the position of Prime Minister...and when His Tonyness stepped down from the leadership of the Labour Party, he autoatically stepped down from the position of PM...

There was some speculation when Margaret Thatcher lost the leadership of the Tory Party that she might not step down from the position of Prime Minister - but in the end she shed some tears and stepped down...

HTH

Philip

Yes,but that was too Dodgy for the Artful Dodger.

No.