Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 11 September 1931.
Mr William Graham
, Edinburgh Central
I think the House will agree that there is no Member who deplores this development more than I do. [Interruption.] I deplore it on the, personal side, but I want to ask whether the Prime Minister all along did not make it perfectly clear that in any statement which he made to the representatives of other political parties and to the representatives of the Bank of England, he was conveying figures which had not been accepted by his Cabinet?
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
