The Prime Minister is the head of government in a democracy. Normally the position is held by the leader of the majority party in parliament. In some parliamentary systems the head of state or monarch appoints a Prime Minister of their choice. In other parliamentary systems, the head of state retains the power to force a government to resign and call new elections.
A Prime Minister organises the government’s work and oversees the activities of other Cabinet members, including their appointments and removals. They must keep the party together and lead in times of crisis to ensure that Parliament will pass government policies into law. They must manage the media to present a positive image of themselves and the government.
They must communicate with the public on important issues and decisions of the day and explain the reasoning behind them. They must attend international summits and heads of government meetings to represent the UK abroad.
The Prime Minister leads consideration of matters at government plenary sessions and may decide the order for presentation and debate of matters. They may also be responsible for specific departments (e.g. the Department of Health or the Ministry of Defence) but this is less common.
A Prime Minister must be able to take hold of any issue that the government deals with and make it their priority. This can be a challenge when the PM has a small majority or no majority, and is exacerbated in wartime when they have to focus on the running of the government and the country. The famous quote attributed to Harold Macmillan, when asked what the greatest challenge was for a statesman, was ‘events, dear boy, events’.