Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as to the absence of a formal post of Deputy Prime Minister in Britain's uncodified constitution. Theoretically the sovereign possesses the unrestricted right to choose someone to form a government following the death, resignation or dismissal of a Prime Minister. One argument made to justify the non-existence of a permanent deputy premiership is that such an office-holder would be seen as possessing a presumption of succession to the premiership, thereby effectively limiting the sovereign's right to choose a prime minister. However, only two Deputy Prime Ministers have gone on to become Prime Minister. Clement Attlee won the 1945 general election
Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service Minister for the Civil Service. Lord Diplock said the following: Lord Roskill said the following. The courts have traditionally been unwilling to subject prerogative powers to judicial review. Judges were only willing to state whether powers existed or not, not whether they had been used appropriately. They therefore applied only the first of the Wednesbury tests; whether the use was illegal. Constitutional scholars such as William Blackstone would have considered this appropriate. The GCHQ case, therefore, was highly important; it held that the application of judicial review would be dependent on the nature of the government's powers, not their source.