[jje1000]

I don't think you understand how the Westminster system works.

De jure of course Rishi is ‘legitimate’, but de facto, the Conservative electorate is feeling morally betrayed. Johnson was elected with a majority and a mandate to “see Brexit through”, but instead very little of that has happened and instead Truss and Sunak have taken the country in very different directions than what voters were expecting- hence the Conservative’s prospective losses in the next election.

To add on that:

This is a crisis of Sunak’s own making. He is an unelected prime minister with no mandate, no coherent agenda and no answer to the profound challenges facing the country, from sluggish productivity and poor growth, to the dire state of social care, to the climate crisis. Devoid of substance, and fearful of the country’s likely verdict on his party’s increasingly wretched period in office, he is determined to make reducing migration a key election battleground.

Rishi Sunak has no purpose. It’s time to call an election | Observer editorial

The prime minister has staked all on migration policies that will do nothing for Britain or the Tory’s electoral fortunes

www.theguardian.com

Meanwhile, he's making huge decisions - on HS2 and the pace of decarbonisation of the economy - that will affect the country for decades, without a mandate from the public.

But when I asked Mr Sunak about whether he needed to go to the country to get a mandate if he really was serious about governing for the long term, he told me that an election "is not what the country wants".

"That's not what anyone wants," he went on. "What people want is politicians making a difference to their lives."

It's a remark many voters might find presumptuous, and the opposition will no doubt seize on. But it's also a reminder that Mr Sunak may not have a mandate, but he does have a plan to take the fight to Labour.

Rishi Sunak says nobody wants an election - the truth is he can't risk one

A general election would give Rishi Sunak the chance to win his own mandate - but he is showing no sign of calling one earlier than he needs to.

news.sky.com

(The Conservatives lost Mid Bedfordshire to Labour after this article):

Dorries formally quit late on Saturday with a lengthy resignation letter that tore into Sunak. The by-election to replace her will likely take place in the autumn, presenting the Conservatives with another test of their popularity when they are trailing the opposition Labour Party in opinion polls.

"Since you took office a year ago, the country is run by a zombie parliament where nothing meaningful has happened. What exactly has been done or have you achieved?," said Dorries.

"You hold the office of prime minister unelected, without a single vote, not even from your own MPs. You have no mandate from the people and the government is adrift. You have squandered the goodwill of the nation, for what?"

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/conservative-uk-lawmaker-formally-quits-with-scathing-attack-pm-sunak-2023-08-27/

Consequently, the link between party manifesto and the legitimacy of the Prime Minister has some constitutional purchase in the UK. It is highly likely that Rishi Sunak’s government will be implementing a programme for government far removed from the 2019 Conservative manifesto, written before the COVID-19 pandemic and current economic crisis. No mandate for austerity can derive from a manifesto that pledges extra funding for the NHS, and no increase in the rate of income tax, VAT, or national insurance. Nobody who voted Conservative in the 2019 general election voted for the opposite of this.

Considering this, there is a strong democratic case that the government should seek a new mandate from the electorate before embarking on a programme for government that diverges dramatically from its election manifesto—a set of promises that do have constitutional recognition and significance. And while this is not a legal requirement, it does not mean that it is constitutionally irrelevant. Rather than trying to persuade a judge of the merits of the case, these are arguments that need to be made in the Palace of Westminster and the arena of public opinion.

Does Rishi Sunak need to call a General Election? - University of Birmingham

There may be a strong democratic case for the new Prime Minister to seek a fresh mandate, but, legally and politically, when is a General Election required?

www.birmingham.ac.uk

A 2022 view from Canada- in hindsight, Sunak did lack the mandate to embark on his massive changes to the policies the Conservatives were elected on:

Rather than being codified, the British constitution rests on the Westminster model of government, whereby the party that commands a majority in the House of Commons forms the government. The prime minister is not directly elected by the people. The job simply goes to whoever is the leader of the party of government. That’s why neither Truss nor Sunak had to hold a public vote to secure the top job and why Sunak referred to the 2019 mandate in his speech.

Political thinkers, however, have long proposed that a government is only legitimate when it has the popular and implicit consent of the governed. In other words a government can only exist when citizens freely allow it to, and have given their popular consent (via a vote) in favour of it.

American political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset said legitimacy “involves the capacity of a political system to … maintain the belief that existing political institutions are the most appropriate and proper ones for the society.”

Legitimacy also has a moral meaning. It is linked to the belief that a government’s actions should be appropriate and legally constituted.

So, even though Sunak can claim to have a legal right to be prime minister, can he claim to have political (democratic) and moral legitimacy to continue?

Rishi Sunak: is it legitimate for the Conservatives to continue in government without an election? A constitutional scholar explains

He’s the third prime minister to take office since the last election and

theconversation.com

The result is a weakened democracy that allows the potential (currently being actualised) for a leader to take over government and start making changes that are massively unpopular with the electorate. Sunak wants a fresh start (several, apparantly), and he wants to lead a different kind of government. He has his own agenda and wants to veer away from the mandate that Johnson obtained. But he does not want to make the case to the country and allow them to decide - we can only assume because he has little confidence his approach reflects the democratic will of the electorate. At a technical level, this is actually legitimate. Practically (in terms of the way we actually do things as well as the intended purpose of the technical design of the system), it completely contradicts the way the system is intended to operate. Again, it's contradictory and allows political actors the option to make whatever case favours their own goals.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/18d7puv/comment/kchaztk

 

[JasonParis]

The point is that the general electorate selects its government, not its leader. And media on both sides of the pond are more obsessed with U.S.-style leadership matches which further distracts from how the system works. The Conservative government is fully legitimate but with a severely broken trust.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The point is that the general electorate selects its government, not its leader. And media on both sides of the pond are more obsessed with U.S.-style leadership matches which further distracts from how the system works. The Conservative government is fully legitimate but with a severely broken trust.

Agreed. All said, Sunak and the Cons are going to get smoked very soon. Who will lose worse, the British Cons or the Canadian Liberals?

 

[jje1000]

Stunning:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1789430051810783462

 

[afransen]

Stunning:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1789430051810783462

I don't think a similar chart for Canada would look all that different.

 

[kEiThZ]

I don't think a similar chart for Canada would look all that different.

With 2016 as the ramp year.

 

[kEiThZ]

Stunning:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1789430051810783462

And yet at the same time..... I'm not sure I want to (or would be allowed to) live in the world that Nate Hochman wants (borderline white nationalist).