Cameron–Clegg coalition

Cameron–Clegg coalition
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
2010–2015
Cameron (left) and Clegg (right) in February 2015
Date formed	11 May 2010 (2010-05-11)
Date dissolved	8 May 2015 (2015-05-08)
People and organisations
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Prime Minister's history	Premiership of David Cameron
Deputy Prime Minister	Nick Clegg
First Secretary	William Hague
Ministers removed	2012 cabinet reshuffle 2014 cabinet reshuffle
Member parties	Conservative Party   Liberal Democrats
Status in legislature	Majority (coalition) 363 / 650 (56%)
Opposition cabinet	First Harman Shadow Cabinet Miliband Shadow Cabinet
Opposition party	Labour Party
Opposition leader	Harriet Harman (2010) Ed Miliband (2010–2015)
History
Election	2010 general election
Outgoing election	2015 general election
Legislature terms	2010–2015 for 5 years per FTPA
Budgets	June 2010 budget 2011 budget 2012 budget 2013 budget 2014 budget March 2015 budget
Incoming formation	2010 government formation
Predecessor	Brown ministry
Successor	Second Cameron ministry

This article is part of a series about David Cameron
Political positions Electoral history The A-List Cameron Cutie MP for Witney Foreign Secretary Shadow Cabinet Frontbench team One-nation conservatism Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Premiership International trips First ministry and term (May 2010 – May 2015) Cameron–Clegg coalition and agreement Nick Clegg's tenure as Deputy Prime Minister Chancellorship of George Osborne Austerity programme 2010 budget 2011 budget 2012 budget 2013 budget 2014 budget March 2015 budget Theresa May's tenure as Home Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's tenure as Work and Pensions Secretary Michael Gove's tenure as Education Secretary Jeremy Hunt's tenure as Health Secretary Bloody Sunday apology Spending, Strategic Defence, Balance of Competences reviews Military intervention in Libya (Operation Ellamy) Big Society Big Society Award National Citizen Service Alternative Vote referendum Phone hacking scandal 2011 riots Welfare Reform Act Health and Social Care Act London 2012 Summer Olympics Belfast City Hall flag protests Bloomberg speech Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 Woolwich attack Scottish independence referendum Royal Mail privatisation Second ministry and term (May 2015 – July 2016) Second ministry (majority) July 2015 budget Operation Shader Military intervention against ISIL in Iraq 2015–16 floods 2016 budget EU referendum Brexit Murder of Jo Cox Panama Papers 2016 Conservative Party leadership election Resignation Honours Post-premiership 2016 Witney by-election Greensill scandal Greased piglet For the Record Tenure as Foreign Secretary International trips November 2023 British cabinet reshuffle
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This article is part of a series about Nick Clegg
MEP for the East Midlands MP for Sheffield Hallam Leader of the Liberal Democrats (2007–2015) 2007 leadership election Frontbench Team 2010 general election Deputy Prime Minister (2010–2015) Tenure Coalition (Agreement) Tuition fees apology 2011 AV referendum Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2014 European election 2015 general election Post-Deputy Prime Minister 2016 EU referendum People's Vote
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The Cameron–Clegg coalition was formed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg when Cameron was invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government, following the resignation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010, after the general election on 6 May. It was the UK's first coalition government since the Churchill caretaker ministry in 1945.

The coalition was led by Cameron as Prime Minister with Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister and composed of members of both Cameron's centre-right Conservative Party and Clegg's centrist Liberal Democrats. The Cabinet was made up of sixteen Conservatives and five Liberal Democrats, with eight other Conservatives and one other Liberal Democrat attending cabinet but not members.^[1] The coalition was succeeded by the single-party, second Cameron ministry following the 2015 election.

The previous Parliament had been dissolved on 12 April 2010 in advance of the general election on 6 May.^[2] The general election resulted in a hung parliament, no single party having an overall majority in the House of Commons, for the first time in 36 years. The Conservatives emerged having the most seats, but 20 short of an overall majority.

In the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement of 11 May 2010, the two parties formed a coalition government.^[3][4] The new Parliament met on 18 May for the swearing-in of Peers in the House of Lords and newly elected and returning Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, and the election for the Speakership of the House of Commons. The Queen's Speech on 25 May set out the government's legislative agenda.^[5] Of the 57 Liberal Democrat MPs, only two refused to support the Conservative Coalition agreement, with former leader Charles Kennedy and Manchester Withington MP John Leech both rebelling.^[6]

The Liberal Democrats had five Cabinet members, including Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister – though after the Cabinet and ministerial reshuffle, David Laws, who was a Minister of State, was allowed to attend the Cabinet but was not a full member. If a Liberal Democrat minister resigned or was removed from office, another member of the same party would have had to be appointed to the Cabinet.^[7]

Each cabinet committee had a chair from one party and a deputy chair from the other; there was also a cabinet committee specifically overseeing the operation of the coalition. Both parties' ministers shared collective responsibility for the government's positions, although the coalition agreement detailed several issues on which the parties agreed to differ; the Liberal Democrats abstained from voting in such cases. Clegg, as Deputy Prime Minister, took Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) when David Cameron was unavailable.^[7]

Key decisions were made by a core group called the "Quad", made up of Cameron, Clegg, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, which decided "all major matters of policy" and resolved disputes between the two parties.^[8][9][10]

While the government's front benchers sat together in the House of Commons and the two parties acted as a bloc during PMQs,^[11] the Liberal Democrat and Conservative backbenchers sat apart and each had their own whips,^[11] and the two parties competed in by-elections. On 4 September 2012, Cameron reshuffled his cabinet for the first time.^[12] He reshuffled his cabinet for the second time on 14 July 2014.^[13]

• David Laws resigned as Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 29 May 2010 because of an expenses irregularity dating from the previous Parliament. He was replaced by Danny Alexander, who was in turn replaced as Secretary of State for Scotland by Michael Moore.^[15]
• On 14 October 2011 Liam Fox resigned as Secretary of State for Defence following the procurement of high-level overseas meetings attendance for his friend and advisor, Adam Werrity, working for a private contractor, and stated that he had "mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred".^[16] His successor was Philip Hammond, who was replaced as Transport Secretary by Justine Greening, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, who was in turn replaced by Chloe Smith, an assistant government whip: she was replaced in turn by Greg Hands.^[16][17]
• On 3 February 2012 Chris Huhne resigned as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change following the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute him and his former wife. His successor was Ed Davey, who was replaced as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills by Norman Lamb, replaced in his previous dual roles by Jenny Willott as an Assistant Whip and Jo Swinson as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister.^[18]

• On 19 October 2012, Andrew Mitchell resigned as Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons following controversy surrounding an argument with police officers in Downing Street. He was replaced by George Young.^[21]
• On 7 January 2013, Lord Strathclyde resigned as Leader of the House of Lords and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was replaced by Lord Hill of Oareford.^[22]
• On 7 October 2013, Michael Moore was replaced as Secretary of State for Scotland by Alistair Carmichael, during a reshuffle which focused on junior ministerial ranks.
• On 9 April 2014, Maria Miller resigned as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Minister for Women and Equalities. She was replaced as Culture Secretary and Minister for Equalities by Sajid Javid, and by Nicky Morgan as Minister for Women. Morgan, who succeeded Javid as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, was not a full cabinet member but attended meetings in her role as Minister for Women.^[23]

• On 5 August 2014, Baroness Warsi resigned as Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and as Minister for Faith and Community, in protest at the Government's response to the conflict in the Gaza Strip.^[26] She was replaced at the Foreign Office by Baroness Anelay of St John's, with Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles taking on Warsi's former Faith and Community brief.^[27]

• Fox–North coalition
• Theresa May's tenure as Home Secretary
• Premiership of David Cameron
• Lib–Con pact
• Lib–Lab pact
• List of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Shadow Cabinet of Ed Miliband

• "Cameron's government: A guide to who's who", BBC News, 14 May 2010
• "Election 2010: the new cabinet", The Guardian (interactive guide), 12 May 2010