What is the Salisbury convention?

Manifestos can also play an important role for the government in passing legislation through the House of Lords. The Salisbury convention sets out that the Upper House does not vote down government legislation that was outlined in the winning party’s election manifesto. The current cabinet manual sets out three aspects to the convention. Namely, that a manifesto bill:

• is accorded a second reading
• is not subject to ‘wrecking amendments’ which change the government’s manifesto intention
• is passed and sent (or returned) to the House of Commons in reasonable time to consider the bill and any amendments

The Salisbury convention in its current form emerged under the 1945-51 Labour government, when the Conservatives had a large majority in the House of Lords led by Viscount Cranbourne, who later became Lord Salisbury. ²² House of Lord Library, The Salisbury Doctrine, 30 June 2006, retrieved 23 February 2024, www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/lords-library/hllsalisburydoctrine.pdf  In a Lords debate he said “it would be constitutionally wrong, when the country has so recently expressed its view, for this House to oppose proposals which have been definitely put before the electorate.” ²³ House of Lords, Hansard, 16 August 1945, vol. 137, col. 47

The Salisbury convention has been called into question, with disagreement over whether it applies if a government has not won a majority at a general election. In 2010, the coalition government asserted that it still applied, but parliamentary committees questioned whether it applied since the public had not explicitly voted for the coalition nor its programme for government. Similarly, it was questioned whether it would apply to the 2017-19 minority Conservative government because its manifesto commitments had not won majority support in the general election. ²⁴ House of Lord Library, Salisbury Convention: A Decade of Developments, 13 December 2019, retrieved 23 February 2024, lordslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/lln-2019-0155/

The Liberal Democrat party were not involved in the original agreement in 1945, and have also called the convention into question.

How have manifestos changed over time?

Manifestos have changed in their style, content and length over time. They have become longer, from between 3000 and 6000 words in 1945, to over 20,000 words in 2019.

Manifestos also tend to contain a larger number of pledges than previously, with the 1945 Labour manifesto containing just seven specific pledges, compared with more than 160 in each of the Labour and Conservative’s 2019 manifestos.