British Prime Ministers Trivia
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67 free British Prime Ministers trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This British prime ministers trivia quiz runs the whole line from Robert Walpole in 1721 to the present day. It covers the record-holders — the longest serving, the youngest, the only one assassinated, the 49-day premiership, the four-term Victorian — and the famous nicknames and quotations: the Iron Lady, Supermac, 'never had it so good', the man who lost America. It also digs into how the job works: why the office rests on nothing but convention, why prime ministers live at Number 10 at all, when the title became official, and what Chequers is. Along the way you get the reformers and the disasters: Grey's Reform Act, Peel's police and the Corn Laws, Disraeli and the Suez shares, Lloyd George's People's Budget, Munich, Suez, the EEC, the coalition and Brexit, plus a healthy dose of who-went-to-which-college for the modern crop from Major to Sunak, Starmer and Burnham. Around a third are easy; the rest reward people who know their Liverpool from their Canning. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's biographies and the sources they cite, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 67 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Britain's first prime minister rose to power in the aftermath of which financial crash?
The South Sea Bubble
The South Sea Bubble: helping ministers escape punishment over the scandal is said to have earned him the nickname 'Screen-Master General'.
Q 02Which prime minister holds the record for the longest tenure, at more than 20 years?
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole: he survived a change of king in 1727, in an age when a new monarch usually meant a new government.
Q 03Which tax did the youngest prime minister in British history introduce to help pay for the wars with France?
Income tax
Income tax: it was one of his emergency measures to fund the war, and it was repealed once the fighting was over.
Q 04Which prime minister is the only one to have been assassinated?
Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval: John Bellingham shot him in the Commons lobby in 1812, blaming the government for refusing him compensation after jail in Russia.
Q 05Which vegetable did the Daily Star livestream in 2022 to see whether it would outlast the prime minister?
A lettuce
A lettuce: the Tesco iceberg, later given a blond wig, was crowned the winner when the prime minister resigned days later.
Q 06Before 2022, which PM's 119-day premiership of 1827 was the shortest in British history?
George Canning
George Canning: in 1809 he fought a duel with his cabinet rival Castlereagh, missed completely, and was shot in the thigh.
Q 07Which prime minister served four non-consecutive terms, the most of any, between 1868 and 1894?
William Gladstone
William Gladstone: for years he walked the streets, trying to persuade prostitutes to change their lives.
Q 08In 1977, the Labour prime minister's son-in-law Peter Jay became Britain's ambassador in which capital?
Washington
Washington: Peter Jay had no diplomatic experience, and his appointment caused controversy.
Q 09London police officers are nicknamed 'bobbies' after the future prime minister who founded which force in 1829?
The Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police: its officers wore blue rather than the army's red, so the new force would not look like a military one.
Q 10Which famous British general went on to serve as prime minister?
The Duke of Wellington
The Duke of Wellington: while prime minister in 1829 he fought a duel with Lord Winchilsea over Catholic emancipation, and neither man was hit.
Q 11Which prime minister's 1812–1827 term covered Waterloo, Peterloo and the Cato Street Conspiracy?
Lord Liverpool
Lord Liverpool: the Cato Street plotters aimed to murder him and his entire Cabinet, but they were caught before they could strike.
Q 12Which prime minister is remembered, fairly or not, as the man who lost the American colonies?
Lord North
Lord North: long written off as a failure, he has since been reassessed as a skilled parliamentarian.
Q 13Which prime minister's government passed the Great Reform Act of 1832 and abolished slavery in 1833?
Earl Grey
Earl Grey: he resigned when the Lords blocked his reform bill, then returned when his rival failed to form a government.
Q 21Which prime minister signed the Munich Agreement with Hitler on 30 September 1938?
Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain: he came home promising 'peace for our time', yet within a year he was declaring war on Germany.
Q 22Which prize did the Second World War prime minister win in 1953 for his published works?
The Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize in Literature went to a man who had earned poor grades at school.
Q 23Which prime minister's government created the National Health Service in 1948?
Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee: he had been deputy prime minister in the wartime coalition, then beat his own boss in Labour's 1945 landslide.
Q 14Which prime minister became the young Queen Victoria's trusted political mentor after she took the throne?
Lord Melbourne
Lord Melbourne: he first became famous as a betrayed husband, when his wife Lady Caroline Lamb had a scandalous romance with Lord Byron.
Q 15The elder William Pitt, prime minister 1766–68, is usually known by which title?
Earl of Chatham
Earl of Chatham: years before his own premiership, he effectively ran the government during the Seven Years' War, while others held the top post.
Q 16Who was the first head of government to be officially given the title 'Prime Minister', in 1905?
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Campbell-Bannerman: as Liberal leader he caused a row by condemning British 'methods of barbarism' in the Boer War.
Q 17Which Liberal led Britain through the second half of the First World War?
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George: he threw himself into organising munitions production before taking over as prime minister in December 1916.
Q 18Which prime minister, born in New Brunswick, was the first born outside the British Isles?
Bonar Law
Bonar Law: in 1916 he declined to form a government, choosing to serve under his Liberal coalition partner instead.
Q 19Which notorious document, published during the 1924 election campaign, embarrassed the first Labour government?
The Zinoviev letter
The Zinoviev letter: splashed by a newspaper during the campaign, it was later accepted to have been a forgery.
Q 20Which Conservative served three separate times as prime minister between 1923 and 1937?
Stanley Baldwin
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.
Q 24Whose premiership was wrecked by the 1956 Suez Crisis, leading to his resignation in January 1957?
Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden: he was accused of misleading Parliament to cover up Britain's secret plan with France and Israel.
Q 25Which 1963 scandal over a War Minister's affair badly damaged the Conservative government?
The Profumo affair
The Profumo affair: Profumo denied it in the Commons, then resigned when he admitted he had lied.
Q 26Who was the last prime minister to take office while a member of the House of Lords, in 1963?
Alec Douglas-Home
Alec Douglas-Home: days into office he gave up his earldom, then won a Commons seat at a by-election in Kinross.
Q 27Which Labour leader formed a government after four separate general elections?
Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson: believing his popularity had recovered, he called an election in 1970, and lost.
Q 28The 1973–74 miners' dispute led the Conservative government to impose which emergency energy-saving measure?
The three-day week
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.
Q 29Who is the only person to have held all four British Great Offices of State?
James Callaghan
James Callaghan: his government fell in 1979 when MPs passed a no-confidence motion by a single vote, 311 to 310.
Q 30Who was the first woman to serve as British prime minister?
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher: she had served in her party leader's cabinet, yet in 1975 she challenged him for the leadership and won.