Times letters: Mark Sedwill’s call for a cull of the cabinet

Sir, The outgoing cabinet secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, is absolutely correct in saying that the cabinet should be reduced in size from the present 26 ministers who are entitled to attend (“Cull the cabinet, Sedwill tells Johnson”, Jul 28). Fifteen or so would work better. However, this will not happen unless and until parliament legislates for the maximum size of the cabinet to be reduced beyond the limits in the Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975. Otherwise the pressures on prime ministers to allow X or Y to attend, to appease them or some need of the chief whip, will continue. It is an iron law that the larger the body, the less effective it can be as a decision-maker. A larger cabinet is not