On 17 October 2019 parliament passed a motion with a majority of 150 calling for an extension on Article 50. However, almost immediately, Boris Johnson announced that he would not be taking parliament's "recommendation". Mass resignations followed, which were made worse when a disgruntled former cabinet minister leaked the government's full impact assessment of a No Deal Brexit along with Boris Johnson's sarcastic and dismissive notes. By the end of the week, Boris had agreed to an extension on Article 50 and officially asked the EU for an extra week, in which time parliament could either acquiesce to No Deal or create a new deal from scratch.
The insult of this caused a rift in parliament, and many members of the Conservative Party were ready to resign. The only sticking point was Corbyn, hardly any non-Labour MP wanted to send him to the Palace. Labour officially denied that any deal to make anyone else Prime Minister would go through. However, at 11 PM October 30th 2019 a deal was reached. Yvette Cooper was sent to the Palace and an emergency Brexit cabinet was formed based on an idea for an all-female cabinet suggested by Caroline Lucas.
Government
Labour: 154 Conservative: 88 SNP: 35 Liberal Democrat: 16 DUP: 10 The Independents}: 5 Change UK: 5 Plaid Cymru: 4 Independent: 2 Green: 1
Opposition
Conservative (Boris Johnson): 224
Third Party
Labour (Jeremy Corbyn): 93
The Emergency Cabinet
Prime Minister: Yvette Cooper
As Prime Minister Yvette Cooper's first responsibility was to fly to Brussells and negotiate an extra year's extension on Article 50, on condition that she would negotiate a deal without Theresa May's red lines, subject to a confirmatory referendum. Her second priority was to get Boris Johnson out of Downing Street, an extended exercise that went on for three weeks while he tried to negotiate for a new majority.
Chancellor: Justine Greening
Justine Greening's primary goal was to hold the line on spending. The First Women's Emergency Ministry agreed to maintain Boris Johnson's spending levels and tax levels for the most part. To support the left in the new coalition Boris Johnson's new tax cuts for the wealthy were reversed and replaced with an effort to raise the basic rate before income tax up to £20,000, which was achieved by September 2020 and was a major achievement mentioned at the National Government Conference in the Queen Elizabeth Centre London. Her other major task was to increase funding for the NHS, which she managed mostly by making subtle cuts in other areas.
Home Secretary: Kirsty Blackman
Blackman's main task was to end the hostile environment policy and work out suitable compensation, however, by January 2020 it was clear that Britain would be remaining in the EEA and keeping freedom of movement with the EU, this meant that come the referendum Britain would either vote to remain in the EU, or vote to keep freedom of movement. This meant a rapid change to policies on migration and this would be the focus of her ministry.
Foreign Secretary: Jo Swinson
Swinson was the first remainer tasked with negotiating a deal with the EU on Brexit and used this position to push for the softest of Brexits while also argung that remaining in the EU would be even better. She was dismissed by the press, snubbed by Trump, and recieved the full anger of the Brexiteers, who regularly camped outside her house and maintained a permanent vigil outside of her offices; however, she managed to get a brexit deal approved by parliament, and it didn't involve an Irish backstop.
To her surprise, and perhaps to her dismay, it was popular in the country as well. Both Labour and the Conservatives campaigned against the deal (effectively placing them in the Remain camp) and the Nationals campaigned to Remain (effectively meaning they campaigned against their deal) however it won over the country and ended up winning the May referendum 58%-42% despite not having the support of the majority of the country. Jo Swinson nearly resigned when her deal passed, but was persuaded to complete the process rather than contest another election. Britain left the EU on 5 November 2020.
Devolved Affairs and the Constitution: Nicola Sturgeon
Sturgeon was not an MP and her election bought about the constitutional innovation of a representative of the devolved governments serving in cabinet. Her main task, for the first year of her time in office, was to restore the Northern Ireland government, which she did following the May 2020 elections, which saw the election of an Alliance-Sinn Fein-DUP triple government. During this time, she set a timetable and agreement for Scottish Independence, which she would call for if Britain voted to leave the EU. In March 2021, Scotland voted for a second time to remain in the UK and in May the SNP once again won re-election, this time as part of an electoral pact and a coalition with the Scottish Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats, and elements of Scottish Labour.
Sturgeon spent her remaining time in this government holding a series of discussions on Constitutional Reform which would form the basis for the next government's policies.
Infrastructure: Heidi Allen
Heidi Allen was responsible for the cancellation of HS2 and other cuts to infrastructure projects that won the National government NIMBY support and reduced the need for cuts elsewhere. Following the remain vote, Allen would become strongly associated with the Nature Highway project, which would be funded through a mix of taxation, local government money, and a charitable foundation that would focus on finding ways to use the new green spaces to support tourism, beautify neighbourhoods, engage local businesses and ofn course have some environmental benefits
Defence: Anna Soubry
Soubry had the difficult task of cutting military budgets, while maintaining a nuclear deterrant and getting the new aircraft carrier operational. The army experienced large cuts to military staffing, and a large number of facilities were reduced in size or sold over the course of this parliament.
Education: Liz Saville Roberts
Roberts would be responsible for implementing a version of the Augur Report in Higher Education - fees reduced to between £5000 and £7000 depending on whether the course required expensive equipment (e.g a science), or was seen as particularly worthy of funding (e.g social care). The lack of additional funding would harm the education sector, and it was noted that more women were going into the now cheaper courses than ever before - which Roberts countered through well funded bursaries for women in STEM.
Justice: Sylvia Hermon
While she was more interested in Northern Irish affairs, Sylvia Hermon took to her responsibilities, in the prison system particularly, with a certain flair. Private prisons were phased out and pilots for work based training were expanded, however prison overpopultion would continue to be a problem and would worsen significantly under this government.
Equality and Social Welfare: Emily Thornberry
While many backbenchers for the National Government saw covering pensions, work benefits and health under one department as a weakness, Thornberry hoped to use the position to carry out a root and branch reform of the system from a holistic point of view. She was one of the few ministers to be given the time and budget to reform their services, although a glut of funding for carers and the NHS was countered by very serious restrictions on funding for benefits.
Following the referendum, Thornberry was given a slightly wider remit. For instance she was responsible for creating a new Equal Pay Act and an Equality Act that would set major targets for businesses in areas like the number of female managers and board members. She was also responsible for a motion to expel countries with homophobic laws from the Commonwealth. This didn't pass but anger over the proposal was seen as one of the major reasons why Charles did not replace his mother as Head of the Commonwealth in 2022.
In 2021 Emily Thornberry announced that she would be beginning the process of reviewing the Gender Reform Act, with a consultation expected after the next general election. Her proposals would stop short at self-ID however she would introduce a tiered system of gender recognition, allowing those who had completed all elements of medical transition to have almst all the rights of cisgender people in their gender. She even planned to open the lowest level of recognition to non-binary people and would be open to the idea of allowing some rights for people aged 16-18 on a provisional basis. These proposals angered both trans campaigners, who pointed out that it was substantially behind other countries and sounded overly complex, and the growing anti-trans movement within the developing party apparatus of the Nationals.
Environment and Climate Change: Caroline Lucas
The idea to form the emergency government was Caroline Lucas' but in some ways she suffered most from it. She was unable to bring the Greens in Scotland and Northern Ireland on board, and following the People's Vote even her own party voted to leave the coalition and form a rejoin coalition. However, Caroline Lucas had substantial personal swing in GPEW and managed to keep her party mostly within the National Coalition, although English and Welsh Independent Green Parties were formed that were affiliated mostly with the Scottish Party, and these would pick up increasing support.
By 2022 the Green Party's infrastructure was in ruins, with many of its members defecting to either the EIG, WIG or Labour. Although the National government was mostly popular, her personal defeat in 2022 was dramatic.
Brighton Pavilion 2022
Aisling Murray (Labour): 45.5%
Felix Bungay (Conservative): 23.2%
Caroline Lucas (Green [National Coupon]): 12.8%
Alexandra Phillips (English Independent Greens): 11.2%
Kathleen Stock (Biology Party): 5.2%
Christina Summers (Christian): 2.1%