67 Fun Facts About British Prime Ministers

Britain's first prime minister rose to power in the aftermath of which financial crash?

The South Sea Bubble: helping ministers escape punishment over the scandal is said to have earned him the nickname 'Screen-Master General'.

Which prime minister holds the record for the longest tenure, at more than 20 years?

Robert Walpole: he survived a change of king in 1727, in an age when a new monarch usually meant a new government.

Which tax did the youngest prime minister in British history introduce to help pay for the wars with France?

Income tax: it was one of his emergency measures to fund the war, and it was repealed once the fighting was over.

Which prime minister is the only one to have been assassinated?

Spencer Perceval: John Bellingham shot him in the Commons lobby in 1812, blaming the government for refusing him compensation after jail in Russia.

Which vegetable did the Daily Star livestream in 2022 to see whether it would outlast the prime minister?

A lettuce: the Tesco iceberg, later given a blond wig, was crowned the winner when the prime minister resigned days later.

Before 2022, which PM's 119-day premiership of 1827 was the shortest in British history?

George Canning: in 1809 he fought a duel with his cabinet rival Castlereagh, missed completely, and was shot in the thigh.

Which prime minister served four non-consecutive terms, the most of any, between 1868 and 1894?

William Gladstone: for years he walked the streets, trying to persuade prostitutes to change their lives.

In 1977, the Labour prime minister's son-in-law Peter Jay became Britain's ambassador in which capital?

Washington: Peter Jay had no diplomatic experience, and his appointment caused controversy.

London police officers are nicknamed 'bobbies' after the future prime minister who founded which force in 1829?

The Metropolitan Police: its officers wore blue rather than the army's red, so the new force would not look like a military one.

Which famous British general went on to serve as prime minister?

The Duke of Wellington: while prime minister in 1829 he fought a duel with Lord Winchilsea over Catholic emancipation, and neither man was hit.

Which prime minister's 1812–1827 term covered Waterloo, Peterloo and the Cato Street Conspiracy?

Lord Liverpool: the Cato Street plotters aimed to murder him and his entire Cabinet, but they were caught before they could strike.

Which prime minister is remembered, fairly or not, as the man who lost the American colonies?

Lord North: long written off as a failure, he has since been reassessed as a skilled parliamentarian.

Which prime minister's government passed the Great Reform Act of 1832 and abolished slavery in 1833?

Earl Grey: he resigned when the Lords blocked his reform bill, then returned when his rival failed to form a government.

Which prime minister became the young Queen Victoria's trusted political mentor after she took the throne?

Lord Melbourne: he first became famous as a betrayed husband, when his wife Lady Caroline Lamb had a scandalous romance with Lord Byron.

The elder William Pitt, prime minister 1766–68, is usually known by which title?

Earl of Chatham: years before his own premiership, he effectively ran the government during the Seven Years' War, while others held the top post.

Who was the first head of government to be officially given the title 'Prime Minister', in 1905?

Henry Campbell-Bannerman: as Liberal leader he caused a row by condemning British 'methods of barbarism' in the Boer War.

Which Liberal led Britain through the second half of the First World War?

David Lloyd George: he threw himself into organising munitions production before taking over as prime minister in December 1916.

Which prime minister, born in New Brunswick, was the first born outside the British Isles?

Bonar Law: in 1916 he declined to form a government, choosing to serve under his Liberal coalition partner instead.

Which notorious document, published during the 1924 election campaign, embarrassed the first Labour government?

The Zinoviev letter: splashed by a newspaper during the campaign, it was later accepted to have been a forgery.

Which Conservative served three separate times as prime minister between 1923 and 1937?

Stanley Baldwin: in 1919 he quietly gave a fifth of his wealth to help pay off the war debt, urging the rich to follow as 'FST' in The Times.

Which prime minister signed the Munich Agreement with Hitler on 30 September 1938?

Neville Chamberlain: he came home promising 'peace for our time', yet within a year he was declaring war on Germany.

Which prize did the Second World War prime minister win in 1953 for his published works?

The Nobel Prize in Literature went to a man who had earned poor grades at school.

Which prime minister's government created the National Health Service in 1948?

Clement Attlee: he had been deputy prime minister in the wartime coalition, then beat his own boss in Labour's 1945 landslide.

Whose premiership was wrecked by the 1956 Suez Crisis, leading to his resignation in January 1957?

Anthony Eden: he was accused of misleading Parliament to cover up Britain's secret plan with France and Israel.

Which 1963 scandal over a War Minister's affair badly damaged the Conservative government?

The Profumo affair: Profumo denied it in the Commons, then resigned when he admitted he had lied.

Who was the last prime minister to take office while a member of the House of Lords, in 1963?

Alec Douglas-Home: days into office he gave up his earldom, then won a Commons seat at a by-election in Kinross.

Which Labour leader formed a government after four separate general elections?

Harold Wilson: believing his popularity had recovered, he called an election in 1970, and lost.

The 1973–74 miners' dispute led the Conservative government to impose which emergency energy-saving measure?

The three-day week: firms could use electricity on only three consecutive days, and the prime minister's snap election over the dispute cost him power.

Who is the only person to have held all four British Great Offices of State?

James Callaghan: his government fell in 1979 when MPs passed a no-confidence motion by a single vote, 311 to 310.

Who was the first woman to serve as British prime minister?

Margaret Thatcher: she had served in her party leader's cabinet, yet in 1975 she challenged him for the leadership and won.

The first female prime minister studied which subject at Somerville College, Oxford?

Chemistry: she then switched to law, reading for the Bar and becoming a barrister before entering Parliament.

Which prime minister, who never went to university, represented Huntingdon in the Commons?

John Major: a keen cricket fan, he later joined the MCC committee, then quit in 2011 over redevelopment plans.

Who is the only person to have led Labour to three consecutive general election victories?

Tony Blair: he got Labour to scrap its old Clause IV commitment to nationalisation before his 1997 landslide.

Which power did Labour's new chancellor hand the Bank of England after the 1997 election?

Setting interest rates: yet the same reforms took away the Bank's job of supervising banks, which passed to the new Financial Services Authority.

Which prime minister led the 2010 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition and called the 2016 EU referendum?

David Cameron: he resigned after losing the 2016 referendum he had called, then returned in 2023 as Foreign Secretary from the House of Lords.

Who was Britain's second female prime minister?

Theresa May: she called a snap election in 2017 to strengthen her hand over Brexit, but lost her Commons majority instead.

Which London service, launched in 2010, came to be nicknamed after the mayor who later became prime minister?

Cycle hire: the bikes took the new mayor's name, though his predecessor Ken Livingstone had first proposed the idea.

Which cabinet minister resigned on the same day in July 2022 as the chancellor who later became prime minister?

Sajid Javid: in 2020 he had quit as chancellor himself rather than sack his advisers, and the future prime minister took over the job.

As a young barrister, the future prime minister elected in 2024 gave free help to two activists sued by which company?

McDonald's: the 'McLibel' case became the longest trial in British legal history, and the pair later won at the European Court of Human Rights.

Who became prime minister on 20 July 2026?

Andy Burnham: he had left the Commons in 2017 to become mayor, and won his way back as MP for Makerfield only weeks before taking office.

Which house in Buckinghamshire has been the prime minister's official country residence since 1921?

Chequers: Viscount Lee of Fareham gave it to the nation so that every future prime minister would have a country retreat.

Which rescue cat became the first to hold the official title of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, in 2011?

Larry: the tabby was taken in from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home to tackle a rat problem at Number 10.

Which title, still engraved on the letterbox of Number 10, does the prime minister also hold?

First Lord of the Treasury: 'prime minister' was long only an informal label, so this Treasury post carried the formal authority.

What formally establishes the office of prime minister?

Nothing but convention: when a prime minister with a Commons majority resigns mid-term, the governing party picks the successor without a general election.

Which prime minister engineered the Acts of Union 1800 that joined Great Britain and Ireland?

William Pitt the Younger: he left office in 1801 when the king refused the Catholic emancipation Pitt saw as the union's necessary partner.

Which name was given to the 1978–79 wave of strikes that helped bring down a Labour government?

The Winter of Discontent: rubbish piled up in the streets, and a gravediggers' strike left some of the dead unburied.

Victory in which 1982 war revived the Iron Lady's popularity ahead of her 1983 landslide?

The Falklands War: defeat soon brought down Argentina's military ruler, General Leopoldo Galtieri.

Which future prime minister was the political head of the Royal Navy during the disastrous 1915 Dardanelles campaign?

Winston Churchill: blamed for the disaster, he quit the government and went to fight on the Western Front.

Which prime minister arranged Britain's purchase of a major stake in the Suez Canal Company?

Benjamin Disraeli: after his father quarrelled with their synagogue, the children were baptised Anglicans, which later let him pursue a parliamentary career.

Which prime minister was the son of a wealthy textile manufacturer?

Robert Peel: once so hostile to Catholic emancipation that he was nicknamed 'Orange Peel', he later reversed and helped pass it.

Which prime minister formed a National Government in 1931 and was expelled by his own party for it?

Ramsay MacDonald: at the 1935 general election he lost his own seat, then returned to the Commons through a by-election.

Which prime minister, an Oxford organ scholar and keen yachtsman, took Britain into the EEC?

Edward Heath: rising unemployment forced his government into a famous U-turn on economic policy.

Which prime minister did Elizabeth II appoint at Balmoral two days before her death?

Liz Truss: their meeting produced the last public photos of the Queen, which prompted concern about her health.

Which prime minister was knighted in 2014 for services to law and criminal justice?

Keir Starmer: before becoming the chief prosecutor, he had defended prisoners facing the death penalty in the Caribbean.

Which prime minister, whose mother was American, was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford?

Harold Macmillan: on taking office he told the Queen his government might not last six weeks, yet he led it for more than six years.

Which prime minister was elected rector of Edinburgh University in 1972, while still a student there?

Gordon Brown: a kick to the head in a school rugby match detached his retina, damaging his sight for life.

Which future prime minister was elected Oxford Union president in 1986 and later edited The Spectator?

Boris Johnson: he had lost his first bid for the Union presidency before winning at the second attempt.

Which prime minister earned an MBA from Stanford as a Fulbright Scholar and worked for Goldman Sachs?

Rishi Sunak: at Stanford he met his future wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter of Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy.

What is the ceremony called when a new British prime minister is formally appointed by the monarch?

Kissing hands is not literal: the Court Circular records it after the audience, but the formal kissing of hands follows later, in Council.

What does each new prime minister handwrite to the commanders of Britain's nuclear-armed submarines?

Letters of last resort give orders in case a nuclear strike wipes out the government, and each old set is destroyed with its contents never disclosed.

Who is the most recent British prime minister to have died in office?

Lord Palmerston died two days before his 81st birthday, eight years after pushing through the 1857 act that first let courts grant divorces.

Who may ask the prime minister six questions at PMQs?

Leader of the Opposition: most other MPs table a routine question on the PM's engagements, then ask their real question as a supplementary.

Who was the last prime minister to serve entirely from the House of Lords?

Lord Salisbury had resigned from the Cabinet in 1867 in protest at plans to widen the franchise, years before leading three governments from the Lords.

Which prime minister reputedly had three aims: win the Derby, marry an heiress and lead Britain?

Lord Rosebery managed all three, having left Oxford rather than obey a rule barring undergraduates from owning a racehorse.

Who is the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party, heading it from 1846 to 1868?

The Earl of Derby's third government passed the 1867 Reform Act, which greatly widened the vote.

Which prime minister fought two elections in 1910 to pass the Parliament Act curbing the Lords?

H. H. Asquith went to the country twice after the Lords rejected the 1909 People's Budget, and the 1911 Act ended their veto over money bills.

Which prime minister, author of A Defence of Philosophic Doubt, gave his name to a 1917 declaration?

Arthur Balfour resigned as prime minister, then lost his own seat in the Liberal landslide that followed.