The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the principal minister of the crown of His Majesty's Government, and the head of the British Cabinet.
There is no specific date for when the office of prime minister first appeared, as the role was not created but rather evolved over time through a merger of duties. The term was regularly, if informally, used by Robert Walpole by the 1730s. It was used in the House of Commons as early as 1805, and it was certainly in parliamentary use by the 1880s, although did not become the official title until 1905, when Henry Campbell-Bannerman was prime minister.
Historians generally consider Robert Walpole, who led the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain for over twenty years from 1721, to be the first prime minister. Walpole is also the longest-serving British prime minister by this definition. The first prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was William Pitt the Younger at its creation on 1 January 1801. The first to use the title in an official act was Benjamin Disraeli who signed the 1878 Treaty of Berlin as "Prime Minister of Her Britannic Majesty".
In 1905, the post of prime minister was officially given recognition in the order of precedence, with the incumbent Henry Campbell-Bannerman the first officially referred to as "prime minister". The first prime minister of the current United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland upon its creation in 1922 (when 26 Irish counties seceded and created the Irish Free State) was Andrew Bonar Law, although the country was not renamed officially until 1927, when Stanley Baldwin was the serving prime minister.
The current prime minister is Keir Starmer, who assumed the office on 5 July 2024.
Before the Kingdom of Great Britain
Before the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, the Treasury of England was led by the Lord High Treasurer. By the late Tudor period, the Lord High Treasurer was regarded as one of the Great Officers of State, and was often (though not always) the dominant figure in government: Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (lord high treasurer, 1547–1549), served as lord protector to his young nephew King Edward VI; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (lord high treasurer, 1572–1598), was the dominant minister to Queen Elizabeth I; Burghley's son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, succeeded his father as Chief Minister to Elizabeth (1598–1603) and was eventually appointed by King James I as lord high treasurer (1608–1612).
By the late Stuart period, the Treasury was often run not by a single individual (i.e., the lord high treasurer) but by a commission of lords of the Treasury, led by the first lord of the Treasury. The last lords high treasurer, Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1702–1710) and Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford (1711–1714), ran the government of Queen Anne.
From 1707 to 1721
Following the succession of George I in 1714, the arrangement of a commission of lords of the Treasury (as opposed to a single lord high treasurer) became permanent. For the next three years, the government was headed by Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, who was appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Subsequently, Lords Stanhope and Sunderland ran the government jointly, with Stanhope managing foreign affairs and Sunderland domestic. Stanhope died in February 1721 and Sunderland resigned two months later; Townshend and Robert Walpole were then invited to form the next government. From that point, the holder of the office of first lord also usually (albeit unofficially) held the status of prime minister. It was not until the Edwardian era that the title prime minister was constitutionally recognised. The prime minister still holds the office of first lord by constitutional convention, the only exceptions being the Earl of Chatham and the Marquess of Salisbury.
Since 1721
Prime ministers
- Conservative (20)
- Whig (16)
- Tory (10)
- Labour (7)
- Liberal (7)
- Scottish Unionists (2)
- National Labour (1)
- Peelite (1)
| Portrait | Prime minister Office (lifespan) | Term of office | Mandate | Ministerial offices held as prime minister | Party | Government | Monarch Reign | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | End | Duration | ||||||||
| | Robert Walpole
| 3 April 1721 | 11 February 1742 | 20 years, 315 days | 1722 |
| Whig | Walpole– | George I r. 1714–1727 | |
| 1727 | George II r. 1727–1760 | |||||||||
| 1734 | Walpole | |||||||||
| 1741 | ||||||||||
Spencer Compton
| 16 February 1742 | 2 July 1743 | 1 year, 137 days | — | Carteret | |||||
Henry Pelham
| 27 August 1743 | 6 March 1754 | 10 years, 192 days | — |
| Broad Bottom I | ||||
| 1747 | Broad Bottom II | |||||||||
Thomas Pelham-Holles
| 16 March 1754 | 11 November 1756 | 2 years, 241 days | 1754 | Newcastle I | |||||
William Cavendish
| 16 November 1756 | 29 June 1757 | 226 days | — |
| Pitt– | ||||
| 1757 Caretaker | ||||||||||
Thomas Pelham-Holles
| 29 June 1757 | 26 May 1762 | 4 years, 332 days | 1761 | Pitt– | |||||
| Bute– (Tory– | George III r. 1760–1820 | |||||||||
John Stuart
| 26 May 1762 | 8 April 1763 | 318 days | — | Tory | Bute | ||||
George Grenville
| 16 April 1763 | 10 July 1765 | 2 years, 86 days | — |
| Whig (Grenvillite) | Grenville (mainly Whig) | |||
Charles Watson-Wentworth
| 13 July 1765 | 30 July 1766 | 1 year, 18 days | — | Whig (Rockinghamite) | Rockingham I | ||||
William Pitt the Elder
| 30 July 1766 | 14 October 1768 | 2 years, 77 days | 1768 |
| Whig (Chathamite) | Chatham | |||
Augustus FitzRoy
| 14 October 1768 | 28 January 1770 | 1 year, 107 days | — | Grafton | |||||
Frederick North
| 28 January 1770 | 27 March 1782 | 12 years, 59 days | 1774 |
| Tory (Northite) | North | |||
| 1780 | ||||||||||
Charles Watson-Wentworth
| 27 March 1782 | 1 July 1782 | 97 days | — | Whig (Rockinghamite) | Rockingham II | ||||
William Petty
| 4 July 1782 | 26 March 1783 | 266 days | — | Whig (Chathamite) | Shelburne | ||||
William Cavendish-Bentinck
| 2 April 1783 | 18 December 1783 | 261 days | — | Whig | Fox–North | ||||
William Pitt the Younger
| 19 December 1783 | 14 March 1801 | 17 years, 86 days | 1784 |
| Tory (Pittite) | Pitt I | |||
| 1790 | ||||||||||
| 1796 | ||||||||||
Henry Addington
| 17 March 1801 | 10 May 1804 | 3 years, 55 days | 1801 |
| Tory (Addingtonian) | Addington | |||
| 1802 | ||||||||||
William Pitt the Younger
| 10 May 1804 | 23 January 1806 | 1 year, 259 days | — |
| Tory (Pittite) | Pitt II | |||
William Grenville
| 11 February 1806 | 25 March 1807 | 1 year, 43 days | 1806 | Whig | All the Talents (Whig– | ||||
William Cavendish-Bentinck
| 31 March 1807 | 4 October 1809 | 2 years, 188 days | 1807 | Tory (Pittite) | Portland II | ||||
Spencer Perceval
| 4 October 1809 | 11 May 1812 | 2 years, 221 days | — |
| Perceval | ||||
Robert Jenkinson
| 8 June 1812 | 9 April 1827 | 14 years, 306 days | 1812 | Liverpool | |||||
| 1818 | George IV r. 1820–1830 | |||||||||
| 1820 | ||||||||||
| 1826 | ||||||||||
George Canning
| 12 April 1827 | 8 August 1827 | 119 days | — |
| Tory (Canningite) | Canning (Canningite– | |||
Frederick John Robinson
| 31 August 1827 | 8 January 1828 | 131 days | — | Tory (Canningite) | Goderich | ||||
Arthur Wellesley
| 22 January 1828 | 16 November 1830 | 2 years, 299 days | — | Tory | Wellington– | ||||
| (1830) | William IV r. 1830–1837 | |||||||||
Charles Grey
| 22 November 1830 | 9 July 1834 | 3 years, 230 days | 1831 | Whig | Grey | ||||
| 1832 | ||||||||||
William Lamb
| 16 July 1834 | 14 November 1834 | 122 days | — | Melbourne I | |||||
Arthur Wellesley
| 17 November 1834 | 9 December 1834 | 23 days | (—) |
| Tory | Wellington Caretaker | |||
Robert Peel
| 10 December 1834 | 8 April 1835 | 120 days | (—) |
| Conservative | Peel I | |||
William Lamb
| 18 April 1835 | 30 August 1841 | 6 years, 135 days | 1835 | Whig | Melbourne II | ||||
| 1837 | Victoria r. 1837–1901 | |||||||||
Robert Peel
| 30 August 1841 | 29 June 1846 | 4 years, 304 days | 1841 | Conservative | Peel II | ||||
John Russell
| 30 June 1846 | 21 February 1852 | 5 years, 237 days | (1847) | Whig | Russell I | ||||
Edward Smith-Stanley
| 23 February 1852 | 17 December 1852 | 299 days | 1852 | Conservative | Who? Who? | ||||
George Hamilton-Gordon
| 19 December 1852 | 30 January 1855 | 2 years, 43 days | (—) | Peelite | Aberdeen (Peelite– | ||||
Henry John Temple
| 6 February 1855 | 19 February 1858 | 3 years, 14 days | 1857 | Whig | Palmerston I | ||||
Edward Smith-Stanley
| 20 February 1858 | 11 June 1859 | 1 year, 112 days | (—) | Conservative | Derby– | ||||
Henry John Temple
| 12 June 1859 | 18 October 1865 | 6 years, 129 days | 1859 | Liberal | Palmerston II | ||||
| 1865 | ||||||||||
John Russell
| 29 October 1865 | 26 June 1866 | 241 days | — | Russell II | |||||
Edward Smith-Stanley
| 28 June 1866 | 25 February 1868 | 1 year, 243 days | (—) | Conservative | Derby– | ||||
Benjamin Disraeli
| 27 February 1868 | 1 December 1868 | 279 days | (—) | ||||||
William Ewart Gladstone
| 3 December 1868 | 17 February 1874 | 5 years, 77 days | 1868 |
| Liberal | Gladstone I | |||
Benjamin Disraeli
| 20 February 1874 | 21 April 1880 | 6 years, 62 days | 1874 |
| Conservative | Disraeli II | |||
William Ewart Gladstone
| 23 April 1880 | 9 June 1885 | 5 years, 48 days | 1880 |
| Liberal | Gladstone II | |||
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
| 23 June 1885 | 28 January 1886 | 220 days | (—) |
| Conservative | Salisbury I | |||
William Ewart Gladstone
| 1 February 1886 | 20 July 1886 | 170 days | (1885) |
| Liberal | Gladstone III | |||
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
| 25 July 1886 | 11 August 1892 | 6 years, 18 days | (1886) |
| Conservative | Salisbury II | |||
William Ewart Gladstone
| 15 August 1892 | 2 March 1894 | 1 year, 200 days | (1892) |
| Liberal | Gladstone IV | |||
Archibald Primrose
| 5 March 1894 | 22 June 1895 | 1 year, 110 days | (—) | Rosebery | |||||
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
| 25 June 1895 | 11 July 1902 | 7 years, 17 days | 1895 |
| Conservative | Salisbury III (Con– | |||
| 1900 | Salisbury IV (Con– | |||||||||
| Edward VII r. 1901–1910 | ||||||||||
Arthur Balfour
| 12 July 1902 | 4 December 1905 | 3 years, 146 days | — |
| Balfour (Con– | ||||
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
| 5 December 1905 | 3 April 1908 | 2 years, 121 days | 1906 | Liberal | Campbell-Bannerman | ||||
H. H. Asquith
| 8 April 1908 | 5 December 1916 | 8 years, 243 days | — | Asquith I | |||||
| (Jan.1910) | Asquith II | George V r. 1910–1936 | ||||||||
| (Dec.1910) | Asquith III | |||||||||
| (—) | Asquith Coalition (Lib– | |||||||||
David Lloyd George
| 6 December 1916 | 19 October 1922 | 5 years, 318 days | (—) | Lloyd George War | |||||
| 1918 | Lloyd George II (Lib– | |||||||||
Bonar Law
| 23 October 1922 | 20 May 1923 | 210 days | 1922 | Conservative (Scot.U.) | Law | ||||
Stanley Baldwin
| 22 May 1923 | 22 January 1924 | 246 days | — |
| Conservative | Baldwin I | |||
Ramsay MacDonald
| 22 January 1924 | 4 November 1924 | 288 days | (1923) |
| Labour | MacDonald I | |||
Stanley Baldwin
| 4 November 1924 | 4 June 1929 | 4 years, 213 days | 1924 | Conservative | Baldwin II | ||||
Ramsay MacDonald
| 5 June 1929 | 7 June 1935 | 6 years, 3 days | (1929) | Labour | MacDonald II | ||||
| (—) | National Labour | National I (Nat.Lab– | ||||||||
| 1931 | National II | |||||||||
| | Stanley Baldwin
| 7 June 1935 | 28 May 1937 | 1 year, 356 days | 1935 | Conservative | National III | |||
| Edward VIII r. 1936 | ||||||||||
| George VI r. 1936–1952 | ||||||||||
Neville Chamberlain
| 28 May 1937 | 10 May 1940 | 2 years, 349 days | — | National IV | |||||
| Chamberlain War | ||||||||||
Winston Churchill
| 10 May 1940 | 26 July 1945 | 5 years, 78 days | — |
| Churchill War | ||||
| Churchill Caretaker (Con– | ||||||||||
Clement Attlee
| 26 July 1945 | 26 October 1951 | 6 years, 93 days | 1945 |
| Labour | Attlee I | |||
| 1950 | Attlee II | |||||||||
Winston Churchill
| 26 October 1951 | 5 April 1955 | 3 years, 162 days | 1951 |
| Conservative | Churchill III | |||
| Elizabeth II r. 1952–2022 | ||||||||||
Anthony Eden
| 6 April 1955 | 9 January 1957 | 1 year, 279 days | 1955 | Eden | |||||
Harold Macmillan
| 10 January 1957 | 18 October 1963 | 6 years, 282 days | — | Macmillan I | |||||
| 1959 | Macmillan II | |||||||||
Alec Douglas-Home
| 19 October 1963 | 16 October 1964 | 364 days | — | Conservative (Scot.U.) | Douglas-Home | ||||
Harold Wilson
| 16 October 1964 | 19 June 1970 | 5 years, 247 days | 1964 | Labour | Wilson I | ||||
| 1966 | Wilson II | |||||||||
Edward Heath
| 19 June 1970 | 4 March 1974 | 3 years, 259 days | 1970 | Conservative | Heath | ||||
Harold Wilson
| 4 March 1974 | 5 April 1976 | 2 years, 33 days | (Feb.1974) | Labour | Wilson III | ||||
| Oct.1974 | Wilson IV | |||||||||
James Callaghan
| 5 April 1976 | 4 May 1979 | 3 years, 30 days | — | Callaghan | |||||
Margaret Thatcher
| 4 May 1979 | 28 November 1990 | 11 years, 209 days | 1979 | Conservative | Thatcher I | ||||
| 1983 | Thatcher II | |||||||||
| 1987 | Thatcher III | |||||||||
John Major
| 28 November 1990 | 2 May 1997 | 6 years, 156 days | — | Major I | |||||
| 1992 | Major II | |||||||||
Tony Blair
| 2 May 1997 | 27 June 2007 | 10 years, 57 days | 1997 | Labour | Blair I | ||||
| 2001 | Blair II | |||||||||
| 2005 | Blair III | |||||||||
Gordon Brown
| 27 June 2007 | 11 May 2010 | 2 years, 319 days | — | Brown | |||||
David Cameron
| 11 May 2010 | 13 July 2016 | 6 years, 64 days | (2010) | Conservative | Cameron–Clegg (Con– | ||||
| 2015 | Cameron II | |||||||||
Theresa May
| 13 July 2016 | 24 July 2019 | 3 years, 12 days | — | May I | |||||
| (2017) | May II (DUP confidence & supply) | |||||||||
Boris Johnson
| 24 July 2019 | 6 September 2022 | 3 years, 45 days | (—) |
| Johnson I (DUP confidence & supply) | ||||
| 2019 | Johnson II | |||||||||
Liz Truss
| 6 September 2022 | 25 October 2022 | 50 days | — |
| Truss | ||||
| Charles III r. 2022–present | ||||||||||
Rishi Sunak
| 25 October 2022 | 5 July 2024 | 1 year, 255 days | — |
| Sunak | ||||
Keir Starmer
| 5 July 2024 | Incumbent | 1 year, 184 days | 2024 |
| Labour | Starmer | |||
Living former prime ministers
- Living former prime minister showing periods in office with dates of birth and age
- John Major
(1990–1997)
29 March 1943 - Tony Blair
(1997–2007)
6 May 1953 - Gordon Brown
(2007–2010)
20 February 1951 - David Cameron
(2010–2016)
9 October 1966 - Theresa May
(2016–2019)
1 October 1956 - Boris Johnson
(2019–2022)
19 June 1964 - Liz Truss
(2022)
26 July 1975 - Rishi Sunak
(2022–2024)
12 May 1980
Currently, there are eight living former Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom. The most recent death of a former prime minister was that of Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) on 8 April 2013.
Disputed prime ministers
Due to the gradual evolution of the post of prime minister, the title is applied to early prime ministers only retrospectively; this has sometimes given rise to academic dispute. William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, and James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, are sometimes listed as prime ministers. Bath was invited to form a ministry by George II when Henry Pelham resigned in 1746, as was Waldegrave in 1757 after the dismissal of William Pitt the Elder, who dominated the affairs of government during the Seven Years' War. Neither was able to command sufficient parliamentary support to form a government; Bath stepped down after two days and Waldegrave after four. Modern academic consensus does not consider either man to have held office as prime minister;[failed verification] they are therefore listed separately.
- Whig (2)
| Portrait | Prime minister Office (lifespan) | Term of office | Mandate | Ministerial offices held as prime minister | Party | Government | Monarch Reign | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | End | Duration | ||||||||
| | William Pulteney
| 10 February 1746 | 12 February 1746 | 3 days | – | Whig | Short-lived | George II r. 1727–1760 | ||
James Waldegrave
| 8 June 1757 | 12 June 1757 | 5 days | – | Waldegrave | |||||
List notes
- Legend for the Mandatecolumn:
- 1722a year
- indicates a general election won by the government or that led to the formation of a government (the year links to the election's article);
- (1830)a parenthesised year
- indicates an election resulting in no single party winning a Commons majority (the year links to the election's article);
- —a dash
- indicates the formation of a majority government without an election;
- (—)a parenthesised dash
- indicates the formation of a minority or coalition government during a hung parliament.
- Walpole was made a peer five days before his resignation as Prime Minister (6 February) and thus relinquished his seat in the House of Commons.
- Died in office
- Resigned on 10 February 1746, reappointed by George II on 12 February 1746.
- As a peer of Scotland, Lord Bute sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish representative peer.
- Pitt served as a Member of Parliament for the first five days of his premiership (30 July – 4 August 1766). He relinquished his Commons seat in order to take the office of Lord Privy Seal, which required his elevation to the House of Lords.
- Lord North was the heir to an earldom and himself a commoner while using the courtesy title.
- Pitt was returned an MP for a different constituency in the 1784 British general election.
- As a peer of Ireland, Lord Palmerston sat in the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for an English constituency which was enabled by the Acts of Union 1800.
- Disraeli was elevated to the House of Lords in 1876, two years into his second premiership. Consequently, he relinquished his Commons seat as MP for Buckinghamshire.
- Douglas-Home disclaimed his peerage as the Earl of Home on 23 October 1963, 4 days after his appointment as Prime Minister. He was returned an MP and took his seat in the House of Commons on 12 November 1963. He had no seats in either of the Houses of Parliament between the two dates.
Timeline
See also
- Category:British premierships
- List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by length of tenure
- List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by education
- Assassination of Spencer Perceval
- Downing Street
- 10 Downing Street
- List of British governments
- List of current heads of government in the United Kingdom and dependencies
- List of prime ministers of Queen Victoria (for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Empire)
- Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- List of United Kingdom general elections
- Royal prerogative in the United Kingdom
- List of government ministers of the United Kingdom
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