ABSTRACT
This article explores how successive Conservative prime ministers, Edward Heath (1970–74), Margaret Thatcher (1979–90) and John Major (1990–97) managed parliament. The immediate question to ask is what do we mean by ‘managing’ parliament? By what standards are we judging success and failure? Fortunately, this question has some equally immediate answers. The job of government, and by extension of the prime minister, is to get the party’s legislative programme through parliament with minimum embarrassment and delay. How successfully it does this is one standard of judgement. A prime minister must also hold his or her party together; he or she must retain the confidence of the parliamentary party. Then there is the question of their legacy – did they leave the party in parliament divided and weak, or coherent and strong? Then there are the more intangible factors – was the prime minister held in high regard personally by his/her backbenchers? Did backbenchers feel they had access to him/her and that he/she would listen to their concerns? While intangible, an answer can be given to these questions.
