British Prime Ministers »

Useful Notes

(aka: The Men Of Downing Street)

The Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom are a varied lot, be it in the areas of appearance, influence, time, origin, personality, politics or even personal lives, though many went to Eton or Harrow and then Oxford or Cambridge. They have had a great deal of impact on worlds both real and fictional. They rank second only to The Presidents of the United States amongst the most influential and well-known Western world leaders.

The office and official residence of the PM is at 10 Downing Street, London. Downing Street is named after Sir George Downing (1623–84), a major schemer whom Samuel Pepys called a "perfidious rogue". Yep, jokes have been made about that. Before becoming the headquarters of the PM, Number Ten itself was the site of a pit used for cockerel fighting; that's right, Number Ten used to be a meeting place for crooks. Jokes have been made about that too. The house is actually several old houses joined together, one of which (known as 'the house at the back') was formerly home to both Oliver Cromwell and King William III.

Note that the title "Prime Minister" did not come into formal use until the 20th century, in the time of Campbell-Bannerman, the original title being First Lord of the Treasury, a title the PM still holds. For that matter, many early prime ministers also held a second job in the cabinet. Walpole is generally considered the first PM, but many early such figures did not use the title even informally. In fact, the term "Prime Minister" was originally used as an insult.

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A list of British prime ministers, with pages linked for those who had a significant impact in their own time or in worlds of fiction, follows. Note that between about 1895 and 1920 the Conservatives and their Liberal Unionist allies were labeled 'Unionists' by the press (and indeed themselves). (Also, the Conservatives merged with Irish Unionists in the 1910s.) For convenience's sake, Unionist PMs such as Balfour are listed here as Conservatives.

Eighteenth-century prime ministers came and went at a rate of knots, as the favours of the reigning monarch wavered. It wasn't until the "madness" of George III and the hedonistic rule of George IV (roughly 1810–30) that the prime ministers began to run the country in earnest.

George I and II

• Sir Robert Walpole (Whig, 1721–1742): First PM; also longest-serving PM. Also represented the constituency of King's Lynn in the House of Commons for all but the last five days of his premiership; the King made him Earl of Orford on 6 February and he resigned as prime minister on the 11th. Died in 1745.
• Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington (Whig, 1742–1743): Died in office.
• Henry Pelham (Whig, 1743–1754): Governed while also serving as MP for Sussex. Doubled as Chancellor of the Exchequer, that is, finance minister. Died in office and was succeeded by his elder brother...
• Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (Whig, 1754–1756).
• William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire (Whig, 1756–1757): Largely a figurehead for Pitt the Elder; died in 1764.
• Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (Whig, 1757–1762): Second time in office; died in 1768.

George III

• John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (Tory, 1762–1763): First PM from Scotland; died in 1792.
• George Grenville (Whig, 1763–1765): Governed while serving as MP for Buckingham; doubled as Chancellor; died in 1770.
• Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (Whig, 1765–1766).
• William Pitt The Elder (Whig, 1766–1768): Also known as the Earl of Chatham, having agreed to double as Lord Privy Seal on 4 August 1766, days after taking up the premiership on 30 July, at which time he was MP for Bath. Died in 1778.
• Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (Whig, 1768–1770): Died in 1811.
• Frederick North, Lord North (Tory, 1770–1782): Governed while serving as MP for Banbury. Doubled as Chancellor during his premiership and was subsequently Home Secretary for the better part of 1783. Left the House of Commons in 1790 when he succeeded his father as earl of Guilford. Died in 1792.
• Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (Whig, March–July 1782): Second turn in office; recognised US independence; died in office.
• William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (Whig, 1782–1783): Made peace with the new US; ironically also the first general officer to serve as PM; died in 1805.
• William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (Whig, April–December 1783): First PM to be non-Anglican at any point in his life (he converted to Unitarianism after leaving office).
• William Pitt The Younger (Tory, 1783–1801): Youngest PM, taking office at the age of 24; governed while serving as MP for the constituency of Appleby for the first few months, then for Cambridge University from the 1784 election.

George III

• Henry Addington (Tory, 1801–1804): Governed while serving as MP for Devizes; previously Speaker from 1789 until 1801; retired from the Commons in 1805 and was created Viscount Sidmouth; as Lord Liverpool's Home Secretary from 1812 to 1822, he oversaw a crackdown on free speech; died in 1844.
• William Pitt the Younger (Tory, 1804–1806): Second spell in office, continued governing while MP for Cambridge University until he died in office.
• William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (Whig, 1806–1807): Son of George Grenville and first cousin of Pitt the Younger; abolished the slave trade but failed to make peace with Napoléon Bonaparte; died in 1834.
• William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (Tory, 1807–1809): Second time officially in office, but as he was old and ill, Spencer Perceval was the real person in power. He stepped down on 4 October and died on the 30th, giving him a post-premiership of just twenty-six days.
• Spencer Perceval (Tory, 1809–1812): Governed while serving as MP for Northampton; the only PM to be assassinated.
• Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (Tory, 1812–1827): He negotiated the Congress of Vienna and Treaties of Paris, end of The Napoleonic Wars and beginning of the century-long Pax Britannica; at nearly fifteen years, his is the longest premiership of the 19th century, no PM since has served a longer term; died in 1828, less than two years after leaving office.

George IV

• George Canning (Tory and later Coalition, April–August 1827): After distinguished spells as Foreign Secretary under Lords Portland and Liverpool, he became arguably Britain's most What Could Have Been PM (119 days), since he died in office of tuberculosis after only 119 days,^note In the same room where Charles James Fox, an important politician of an earlier generation, had died, no less! becoming the shortest-serving PM for nearly 200 years until Liz Truss in 2022; governed while serving MP for Seaford.
• Frederick Robinson, 2nd Viscount Goderich (Tory, 1827–1828): Died in 1859, prior to Truss the shortest-serving prime minister not to die in office (that distinction goes to his predecessor George Canning).
• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (Tory, 1828–1830): Second and last general officer (Field Marshal) to serve as PM.

William IV

• Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (Whig, 1830–1834): Passed the Great Reform Act and abolished slavery throughout the British Empire; also lent his name to a popular blend of tea; died in 1845.
• William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (Whig, July–November 1834)
• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (Tory, November–December 1834): Second time in office, died in 1852.
• Sir Robert Peel (Conservative, December 1834–April 1835): Founded the modern Conservative Party; governed while serving as MP for Tamworth.
• William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (Whig, 1835–1841): Second spell in office, died in 1848.

Victoria

• Sir Robert Peel (Conservative, 1841–1846): Second spell in office; died in 1850.
• John Russell (Whig, 1846–1852): First spell in office, during which he governed while serving as MP for City of London.
• Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative, February–December 1852).
• George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (Peelite, 1852–1855): Died in 1860.
• Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Whig, 1855–1858): Previously a Tory until 1830; governed while serving as MP for Tiverton^note His peerage was from the peerage of Ireland, which did not entitle him to sit in the House of Lords but did let him sit in the Commons.
• Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative, 1858–1859): Second spell in office.
• Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Liberal, 1859–1865): Second spell in office, died in office two days before his 81st birthday.
• John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (Liberal, 1865–1866): Second spell in office and the one after he was ennobled, which happened in 1861; died in 1878.
• Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative, 1866–1868): Third spell in office; died in 1869.
• Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative, February–December 1868): Only ethnically Jewish PM; converted to the Church of England in his youth at his father's behest (after his father got into a tiff at his synagogue); governed while serving as MP for Buckinghamshire during this time.
• William Gladstone (Liberal, 1868–1874): Governed while serving as MP for Greenwich during this time.
• Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative, 1874–1880): Second spell in office; continued serving as MP for Buckinghamshire until 1876, when he was created Earl of Beaconsfield; died in 1881, a year less two days after he left office.
• William Gladstone (Liberal, 1880–1885): Second time in office, during which he became the first PM to represent a Commons constituency in Scotland, namely Midlothian, which he would continue to represent in his subsequent premierships.
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative, 1885–1886): First time in office.
• William Gladstone (Liberal, February–July 1886): Third time in office.
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative, 1886–1892): Second time in office.
• William Gladstone (Liberal, 1892–1894): Only PM to serve four non-consecutive premierships; oldest PM, retiring at the age of 84; died in 1898.
• Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (Liberal, 1894–1895): Died in 1929.
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative/Unionist, 1895–1902): Third time in office; last PM to govern from the House of Lords; last PM not to be First Lord of the Treasury as well; died in 1903, just over a year after he left office.

Edward VII

• Arthur Balfour (Conservative/Unionist, 1902–1905): Governed while serving as MP for Manchester East; first serving PM not to belong to the Anglican Communion (he was Presbyterian); died in 1930.
• Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal, 1905–1908): Governed while serving as MP for Stirling Burghs; first PM to use the title officially; last Liberal PM to win the popular vote and a majority of seats in a general election;^note In the 1906 election, the Liberals beat the Tories by 287,000 popular votes and won 397 out of 670 seats. only PM to be Father of the House (longest continuously serving MP) at the same time as he was PM; resigned as prime minister on 5 April 1908 and died on the 22nd.
• Herbert Henry Asquith (Liberal, 1908–1916): Governed while serving as MP for Fife East; the (first) PM of World War I; died in 1928.

George V

• David Lloyd George (Liberal/National Liberal, 1916–1922): Second PM of World War I, represented the United Kingdom at the Paris Peace Conference, and last Liberal prime minster; the party split over the issue of Irish independence. The first PM to represent a constituency in Wales, namely Caernarvon Boroughs, and the only PM to have English as a second language (after Welsh). Died in 1945.

George V

• Bonar Law (Conservative, 1922–1923): The first PM born outside the British Isles, though still within the Empire (Canada, to be exact). Governed while serving as MP for Glasgow Central. Led the Conservative Party to victory at the 1922 general election after breaking away from the Liberal–Conservative wartime coalition, but resigned while terminally ill with cancer in May 1923 and died that October.
• Stanley Baldwin (Conservative, 1923–16 January 1924): First time in office; governed while serving as MP for Bewdley.
• Ramsay MacDonald (Labour, January–November 1924): First prime minister from the Labour Party; governed while serving as MP for Aberavon during this time; despite Baldwin's Tories winning the most seats at the 1923 election, he governed with confidence and supply from the Liberals.
• Stanley Baldwin (Conservative, 1924–1929): Second time in office.
• Ramsay MacDonald (Labour, 1929–1931; then National Labour, 1931–1935): Second time in office; governed while serving as MP for Seaham during this time; passed the Statute of Westminster, granting the Dominions effective political and legislative independence from the British Empire; his National Government alliance with the Tories and National Liberals was short-lived as he lost his seat in the 1935 general election; died two years less five days after being voted out of the Commons, in 1937.
• Stanley Baldwin (Conservative, 1935–1937): Last PM to serve three non-consecutive terms; PM during the Edward VIII abdication crisis; died in 1947.

George VI

• Neville Chamberlain (Conservative, 1937–1940): Governed while serving as MP for Birmingham Edgbaston; forever associated with Head-in-the-Sand Management thanks to his signing of the Munich Agreement, stayed on after the invasion of Poland but resigned after the fall of Norway; died in November 1940 after having resigned in May
• Winston Churchill (Conservative, 1940–1945): The PM of World War II. Won the War, Lost the Peace(-time general election of 1945). Governed while serving as MP for Epping until it was abolished when the 1945 election was called and represented Woodford for the remainder of his time in the Commons.
• Clement Attlee (Labour, 1945–1951): Governed while serving as MP for Limehouse until it was abolished when the 1950 election was called and represented Walthamstow West for the remainder of his time in the Commons. Introduced the National Health Service, the first universal health care system to cover all humans living under one polity in history, and bulwark of the modern welfare state; first irreligious^note Usually reckoned as agnostic, but he said "I don't know" when asked directly if he was, and is only known to have described himself as "incapable of religious feeling." and non-Christian PM. Died in 1967.
• Winston Churchill (Conservative, 1951–1955): Also served (briefly) under Elizabeth II as PM. Less than a month after Elizabeth's coronation in June 1953, Churchill suffered a stroke which would lead Elizabeth to initiate the planning for his funeral. He eventually died in 1965.

Elizabeth II

• Anthony Eden (Conservative, 1955–1957): Governed while serving as MP for Warwick & Leamington; resigned not just from the premiership but the Commons over the Suez Crisis, which effectively marked the end of the British Empire as a geopolitical concept (and British aspirations to third-superpower status alongside the United States and Soviet Union);^note Rich irony since he was considered a distinguished Foreign Secretary under Churchill. died in 1977
• Harold Macmillan (Conservative, 1957–1963): Governed while serving as MP for Bromley; last PM to be granted an hereditary peerage (Earl of Stockton), albeit not until 1984; last PM born in the 19th century; died in 1986.
• Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative, 1963–1964): Pronounced "Douglas-Hume"; the last Prime Minister to sit in the House of Lords (he renounced the Earldom of Home and finished his term in the Commons, being elected at Kinross & Western Perthshire); also (and not surprisingly) the last PM to be descended from or closely related to a previous PM; first PM born in the 20th century; died in 1995.
• Harold Wilson (Labour, 1964–1970): Governed while serving as MP for Huyton. Presided over the Swinging Sixties and the British Invasion. Led a strongly socially liberal government, having abolished capital punishment,^note Technically it remained a valid sentence for treason until 1998, but there had been no executions for treason since 1946. decriminalized homosexuality, and liberalized abortion laws in his first term. Also decimalized the Pound, awarded each of The Beatles an MBE,^note John Lennon returned his in political protest in 1969, but the other three kept theirs. Paul McCartney got a knighthood in 1997; Ringo Starr would follow in 2018. George Harrison was offered an OBE but declined it in 2000, having hoped to be knighted like Sir Paul. He died shortly thereafter, but probably would have been knighted had he lived long enough. and was PM the one and only time England won the World Cup (in 1966).
• Edward Heath (Conservative, 1970–1974): Governed while serving as MP for Bexley until it was abolished at the February 1974 general election and then governed while MP for Sidcup for the four days' worth of negotiations over the subsequent hung Parliament until Wilson was appointed for his second spell. Took Britain into the Common Market; most recent PM to enter and exit office by means of a general election. Died in 2005.
• Harold Wilson (Labour, 1974–1976): Latest PM to return as such after a defeat; last PM to win four general elections (1964, 1966, February 1974, October 1974); last PM to leave office voluntarily.^note Blair and Cameron both resigned "voluntarily", but Blair was forced out from the fallout over Iraq and pressure from the pro-Brown faction of the party and Cameron resigned because his position was untenable after losing the 2016 referendum on continued EU membership. Died a few months before Douglas-Home in 1995.
• James Callaghan (Labour, 1976–1979): Governed while serving as MP for Cardiff South East, the latest PM to represent a Welsh constituency; first atheist PM;^note Though he continued to be influenced by his Baptist nonconformist upbringing and seldom if ever discussed his religious beliefs in public, and never during his premiership. most recent military veteran to serve as PM; longest-lived PM, dying the day before his 93rd birthday in 2005.
• Margaret Thatcher (Conservative, 1979–1990): Governed while serving as MP for Finchley; the first woman of Downing Street, but many humorists felt she was more manly than her entire Cabinet; longest-serving PM of the 20th century; most recent PM to die, in 2013, and, ironically, most recent to receive a state funeral.
• John Major (Conservative, 1990–1997): Governed while serving as MP for Huntingdon; living; most recent PM not to have gone to university (he actually left secondary education the day before his sixteenth birthday and later took banking correspondence courses).
• Tony Blair (Labour, 1997–2007): Governed while serving as MP for Sedgefield; living; longest-serving Labour PM; last PM to win three general elections (1997, 2001, 2005); longest-serving PM of the 21st century so far;^note He lasted 6 years, 178 days starting on 1 January 2001; Cameron's term was about four months shorter. first-ever PM to be a member of the Roman Catholic Church, though he did not formally convert until after leaving office.
• Gordon Brown (Labour, 2007–2010): Governed while serving as MP for Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath; living; only PM with a PhD (in History, from the University of Edinburgh); the most recent PM from Scotland.
• David Cameron (Conservative, 2010–2016): Governed while serving as MP for Witney; living; led the first coalition government (with the Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg) since the Second World War; returned to single-party government in 2015, albeit with a tiny majority. Won the referenda on the Alternative Vote and Scottish independence (he supported NO on both); lost the referendum on continued UK membership of the EU (he supported REMAIN). Unexpectedly returned to government in 2023 as Foreign Secretary, being elevated to the Lords; making him the most recent PM to serve in a later prime minister's cabinet.
• Theresa May (Conservative, 2016–2019): Governed while serving as MP for Maidenhead; living; the second woman of Downing Street, taking over from David Cameron following the EU referendum; following losses in a snap election in 2017, led a minority government supported by Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party; negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the EU but failed to pass it on three occasions;^note On the first of these three occasions the Commons defeated it by the largest margin by which it has ever defeated any government bill in British history. resigned after being forced to delay UK withdrawal from the EU past the originally scheduled date of 31 March 2019 and thus requiring participation in the EU parliamentary elections that summer, in which the Tories placed fifth. Elevated to the Lords after retiring from the Commons in 2024, the first former PM to move directly from one chamber to the other since the previous female PM, Margaret Thatcher.
• Boris Johnson (Conservative, 2019 – 6 September 2022): Governed while serving as MP for Uxbridge & South Ruislip; living; the second PM born outside of the British Isles, and the first outside of the British Empire/Commonwealth (in New York City, to be precise); renounced his dual American citizenship in 2015. Taking over following Theresa May's resignation, he maintained her minority government supported by the DUP until mass defections by Conservative MPs who disagreed with their party's Brexit deal left the Tory–DUP confidence-and-supply agreement without a functioning majority, so he called a general election later that year, which resulted in the Conservatives regaining a solid majority with help from the Brexit Party forming an unofficial alliance with them, the party's first since before the 1992 general election. Took Britain out of the European Union, oversaw most of the COVID-19 Pandemic and became one of the firmest West European supporters of arming Ukraine amidst the 2022 invasion of the latter by Vladimir Putin's Russia. Probably the first practising Catholic PM, though he refused to confirm it, as he was baptized Catholic and married in a Catholic ceremony (the first sitting PM to wed in office in two centuries) during his tenure.^note The Roman Catholic Church allowed this despite Johnson being twice divorced because neither of those marriages had been celebrated in the Catholic Church. Resigned after multiple scandals including Partygate,^note The revelations that Johnson and his staff had held multiple parties at 10 Downing Street during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020–21, resulting in Johnson and his wife getting fined by the police. the Owen Paterson scandal,^note An attempt by Johnson to change anti-corruption rules for MPs to prevent Paterson, a senior Conservative politician who'd been found in breach of lobbying rules, from being suspended from Parliament. and the Chris Pincher scandal,^note The revelation that Johnson had appointed Pincher to a government post despite knowing that he had been the subject of (and investigated by the police over) multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. the last of which led to mass resignations from his cabinet which ultimately forced him to announce his own. Resigned from his seat in June 2023, after an investigation into the aforementioned Partygate scandal concluded he had lied to Parliament.
• Liz Truss (Conservative, 6 September – 25 October 2022): Governed while serving as MP for South West Norfolk; living; the third woman to become prime minister, succeeded Boris Johnson following his resignation. Final prime minister to serve under Elizabeth II, taking office only two days before the Queen's death. For the following two weeks, politics was effectively on hold for official national mourning. However, on 23 September, her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng issued a disastrous "mini-budget" announcement which went down like a lead balloon with financial markets, sending the value of the pound plummeting and forcing the Bank of England to make an emergency intervention. The ensuing political chaos wholly eroded her authority, and she resigned as party leader on 20 October 2022, leaving office on 25 October after just 49 days as prime minister, smashing George Canning's 195-year-old record for the shortest-serving PM in history. She is the most recent PM never to face the electorate as party leader at any point during their term, and the next time she stood at her constituency, she was one of over 100 Conservative MPs to be defeated for re-election when she lost her hitherto very safe seat to Labour.

Charles III

• Rishi Sunak (Conservative, 25 October 2022 – 5 July 2024) — Governed while serving as MP for Richmond (Yorks);^note This was the official name of his constituency, to avoid it being confused for the constituency of Richmond in Surrey, which existed from 1918 until 1983, as well as the extant constituency of Richmond Park in Greater London. the first British Asian and first non-White prime minister, succeeded Liz Truss following her resignation, having previously lost to her in the leadership election seven weeks prior. One of, if not the, wealthiest people to have been prime minister, with a personal fortune of £730million ($827million)^note This largely stems from Sunak's wife, Akshata Murty, being the heiress to technology company Infosys. the first Prime Minister to practise a faith other than Christianity (Hinduism)^note As noted above, Benjamin Disraeli was born Jewish, but converted at a young age. and at 42 years and 166 days on taking office, the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool. Upon losing the 2024 General Election, became the latest PM not to win a mandate of their own in an election. Still an MP, having been re-elected for Richmond and Northallerton, a slightly adjusted version of his former constituency, in 2024 (he was also technically prime minister while serving for that constituency for a few hours until he officially advised His Majesty to appoint Keir Starmer to succeed him).
• Keir Starmer (Labour, 5 July 2024 – present) — Governing while serving as MP for Holborn and St Pancras. A human rights lawyer and former Director of Public Prosecutions (the head of the system responsible for legal prosecutions in the UK), he was first elected as an MP only in 2015, in the same general election as Sunak. Succeeding Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, he took the party back to the political centre and won the 2024 election against Sunak, mostly by being very cautious and not interrupting the Conservatives while they made a string of mistakes. Also notable for being the first graduate of a red brick university to become Prime Minister, having earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Leeds (though he did get an Oxford postgraduate degree that bears the "bachelor's" title). Second atheist PM and first to live with a Jewish family at Downing Street.^note  Again, Disraeli converted at a young age and married a non-Jewish woman. In a reverse of that, the non-Jewish Starmer has said his family follow the customs of his wife's Jewish faith and family, including attending a liberal synagogue and publicly announcing he tries to stop working before Friday evenings.

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In media, there have also been notable fictional British Prime Ministers, including:

• Lord Bellinger in The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
• Plantagenet Palliser (among others) in the Palliser novels.
• Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) in Yes, Minister and its continuing series Yes, Prime Minister.
• Harry Perkins (Ray McAnally) in A Very British Coup.
• Lord Byron in The Difference Engine.
• Francis Urquhart (Ian Richardson) in the House of Cards trilogy.
• David (Hugh Grant) in Love Actually (his surname is never mentioned).

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