Whig1721–1742
Sir Robert Walpole
Generally regarded as Britain’s first prime minister, Walpole dominated early Georgian politics and brought long-lasting stability after financial crisis.
Lineage
List of British Prime Ministers in Order
Explore all British prime ministers in chronological order, from Sir Robert Walpole in 1721 to the present day.
This timeline shows every premiership, including repeat terms, with party affiliation, key dates, and concise summaries. Switch between a visual timeline and a structured party view to understand how leadership in Britain has evolved over time.
Key facts about British prime ministers
- First prime minister: Sir Robert Walpole (1721–1742)
- Current prime minister: Sir Keir Starmer (2024–present)
- Longest-serving: Sir Robert Walpole (over 20 years)
- Total premierships listed: 78
How the role of prime minister developed
The role of prime minister was not formally defined at first. Sir Robert Walpole is generally considered the first holder of the office, though the position evolved gradually from senior ministers advising the monarch.
Over time, power shifted from the Crown to Parliament, and the prime minister became the central figure in British government. The rise of organised political parties, electoral reform in the nineteenth century, and the expansion of democracy all reshaped the office into its modern form.
This page lists every premiership in order, including multiple terms served by the same individual, to give a complete picture of political leadership in Britain.
Whig
17 prime ministers
Whig1742–1743
Spencer Compton
The Earl of Wilmington succeeded Walpole, but his short premiership was limited by ill health and stronger figures around him.
Whig1743–1754
Henry Pelham
Pelham presided over a relatively stable period, managing war finance and preserving a broad governing coalition.
Whig1754–1756
Thomas Pelham Holles, Duke of Newcastle
Newcastle inherited office in a period of mounting imperial rivalry, but his first ministry struggled as global war loomed.
Whig1756–1757
William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire
Devonshire headed a brief wartime ministry that depended heavily on the energy and popularity of William Pitt the Elder.
Whig1757–1762
Thomas Pelham Holles, Duke of Newcastle
In his second spell, Newcastle governed alongside Pitt during the Seven Years’ War, when Britain expanded its global position.
Whig1763–1765
George Grenville
Grenville tightened imperial administration after war, including new taxation in America that sharpened colonial anger.
Whig1765–1766
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham
Rockingham repealed the Stamp Act but struggled to build a durable ministry in a fragmented political system.
Whig1766–1768
William Pitt the Elder
William Pitt the Elder entered office with immense prestige, but illness and division weakened his ministry.
Whig1768–1770
Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton
Grafton presided over growing unrest in Britain’s American colonies and persistent instability in parliament.
Whig1782
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham
Rockingham returned during crisis after Yorktown, but his second ministry ended quickly with his death in office.
Whig1782–1783
William Petty-Fitzmaurice, Earl of Shelburne
Shelburne negotiated the peace that recognised American independence, though his government lacked broad support.
Whig1806–1807
Lord Grenville
Grenville led the Ministry of All the Talents, remembered especially for abolishing the British slave trade.
Whig1830–1834
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Grey’s government passed the Great Reform Act of 1832, a major turning point in British political history.
Whig1834
William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne
Melbourne’s first ministry was brief, though he soon returned as a major political influence in the early Victorian age.
Whig1835–1841
William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne
Melbourne governed through reform-era politics and became closely associated with the early reign of Queen Victoria.
Whig1846–1852
Lord John Russell
Russell’s ministry confronted the Irish Famine, European revolution, and the growing pressures of reform politics.
Tory
12 prime ministers
Tory1762–1763
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
Bute was closely associated with George III and made peace with France, but his ministry quickly became unpopular.
Tory1770–1782
Lord North
North led Britain through most of the American War of Independence and fell after defeat reshaped imperial politics.
Tory1783–1801
William Pitt the Younger
Pitt reshaped finance and executive government, and led Britain into the upheavals of the French Revolutionary era.
Tory1801–1804
Henry Addington
Addington governed during a brief peace in the Napoleonic era, but his ministry was overshadowed by renewed war.
Tory1804–1806
William Pitt the Younger
Pitt returned as war with France resumed, but died before Britain reached the turning point of the conflict.
Tory1807–1809
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
Portland’s second ministry was marked by wartime strain and internal conflict between leading ministers.
Tory1809–1812
Spencer Perceval
Perceval led Britain through the Napoleonic Wars until he was assassinated in the House of Commons lobby.
Tory1812–1827
Lord Liverpool
Liverpool oversaw victory over Napoleon and then the difficult politics of postwar unrest, reform pressure, and recovery.
Tory1827
George Canning
Canning’s short premiership revealed the fragmentation of old Tory unity, but his death cut short any broader realignment.
Tory1827–1828
Frederick Robinson, Viscount Goderich
Goderich proved unable to hold together a coherent ministry and resigned after only a few months.
Tory1828–1830
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
The hero of Waterloo passed Catholic Emancipation but struggled with rising pressure for political reform.
Tory1834
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
Wellington briefly led a caretaker government before Robert Peel returned to take office.
Whig Coalition
1 prime minister
Whig Coalition1783
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
Portland’s first ministry was a coalition of convenience and was swiftly dismissed by George III.
Conservative
28 prime ministers
Conservative1834–1835
Sir Robert Peel
Peel’s first ministry was short, but it helped define the modern Conservative Party and its political outlook.
Conservative1841–1846
Sir Robert Peel
Peel modernised administration and repealed the Corn Laws, splitting his party but changing Britain’s economic direction.
Conservative1852
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
Derby’s first government was brief, but he remained central to Conservative politics across a turbulent generation.
Conservative1858–1859
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
Derby returned, but his minority government struggled to manage parliament and widening reform pressure.
Conservative1866–1868
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
Derby’s third government passed the 1867 Reform Act, extending the franchise and reshaping electoral politics.
Conservative1868
Benjamin Disraeli
Disraeli’s first spell was brief, but he soon emerged as one of the defining Conservative leaders of the century.
Conservative1874–1880
Benjamin Disraeli
Disraeli’s second ministry linked conservatism with empire, social reform, and a more theatrical national politics.
Conservative1885–1886
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Salisbury’s first government began a long Conservative ascendancy in late Victorian politics.
Conservative1886–1892
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Salisbury’s second ministry benefited from Liberal division and reinforced Conservative strength across the union.
Conservative1895–1902
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Salisbury’s third ministry spanned imperial conflict, including the Boer War, and the height of late Victorian power politics.
Conservative1902–1905
Arthur Balfour
Balfour inherited office from Salisbury but saw his party weakened by education, tariff, and imperial controversies.
Conservative1922–1923
Bonar Law
Bonar Law ended the wartime coalition era, but ill health meant his premiership lasted only a short time.
Conservative1923–1924
Stanley Baldwin
Baldwin’s first ministry fell after seeking a tariff mandate, opening the way for Labour’s first government.
Conservative1924–1929
Stanley Baldwin
Baldwin returned with a stronger mandate and presided over a calmer, though still uneasy, interwar politics.
Conservative1935–1937
Stanley Baldwin
Baldwin returned again and managed the abdication crisis of Edward VIII before retiring from politics.
Conservative1937–1940
Neville Chamberlain
Chamberlain is inseparable from appeasement, though his fall came in the first desperate phase of the Second World War.
Conservative1951–1955
Sir Winston Churchill
Churchill returned in old age, symbolising continuity and prestige in the early Cold War era.
Conservative1955–1957
Sir Anthony Eden
Eden’s reputation was badly damaged by the Suez Crisis, which exposed the limits of Britain’s postwar power.
Conservative1957–1963
Harold Macmillan
Macmillan projected calm prosperity at home while steering Britain through decolonisation and strategic change abroad.
Conservative1963–1964
Sir Alec Douglas-Home
Douglas-Home renounced his peerage to sit in the Commons, but could not stop Conservative decline.
Conservative1970–1974
Sir Edward Heath
Heath took Britain into the European Economic Community but was weakened by industrial conflict and economic crisis.
Conservative1979–1990
Margaret Thatcher
Thatcher transformed the economy, the state, and the tone of British politics more radically than any postwar prime minister.
Conservative1990–1997
Sir John Major
Major combined unexpected electoral success with deep party division over Europe and the strains of a long Conservative era.
Conservative2010–2016
David Cameron
Cameron governed first in coalition and then alone, but his legacy was transformed by the Brexit referendum.
Conservative2016–2019
Theresa May
May tried to deliver Brexit while managing a divided parliament, but could not secure support for her withdrawal deal.
Conservative2019–2022
Boris Johnson
Johnson won a large majority, completed Brexit, and led through the pandemic before scandal drove him from office.
Conservative2022
Liz Truss
Truss’s premiership collapsed with extraordinary speed after market turmoil followed her government’s mini-budget.
Conservative2022–2024
Rishi Sunak
Sunak sought to restore stability after Truss, but the Conservatives suffered a heavy defeat at the 2024 general election.
Peelite Coalition
1 prime minister
Peelite Coalition1852–1855
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen
Aberdeen led a broad coalition, but the Crimean War fatally weakened confidence in his government.
Liberal
10 prime ministers
Liberal1855–1858
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Palmerston embodied energetic national confidence, combining liberal politics with a forceful foreign policy image.
Liberal1859–1865
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Palmerston’s second ministry dominated the late 1850s and early 1860s with stability and imperial confidence.
Liberal1865–1866
Lord John Russell
Russell’s second premiership fell over reform, showing how rapidly the old political order was changing.
Liberal1868–1874
William Ewart Gladstone
Gladstone’s first ministry pursued major reform in Ireland, education, the army, and the civil service.
Liberal1880–1885
William Ewart Gladstone
Gladstone returned as questions of Ireland, empire, and democracy moved closer to the centre of politics.
Liberal1886
William Ewart Gladstone
Gladstone’s third ministry was consumed by Irish Home Rule, a cause that split the Liberal Party.
Liberal1892–1894
William Ewart Gladstone
In his final premiership, Gladstone returned once more to Home Rule before retiring from front-rank politics.
Liberal1894–1895
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
Rosebery struggled to unite Liberal priorities and lacked Gladstone’s authority inside party and parliament.
Liberal1905–1908
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Campbell-Bannerman led the Liberals to a landslide and opened a reforming Edwardian era in British politics.
Liberal1908–1916
H. H. Asquith
Asquith governed through constitutional conflict, social reform, and the first traumatic years of the First World War.
Liberal Coalition
1 prime minister
Liberal Coalition1916–1922
David Lloyd George
Lloyd George led Britain to victory in the First World War and then into an unstable and difficult peace.
Labour
9 prime ministers
Labour1924
Ramsay MacDonald
MacDonald became Britain’s first Labour prime minister, marking a profound shift in party politics.
Labour1929–1931
Ramsay MacDonald
MacDonald’s second government began under Labour but was overwhelmed by the crisis of the Great Depression.
Labour1945–1951
Clement Attlee
Attlee’s government built the postwar welfare state, founded the NHS, and oversaw reconstruction and decolonisation.
Labour1964–1970
Harold Wilson
Wilson presented Labour as the party of modernisation, technology, and social change in the 1960s.
Labour1974–1976
Harold Wilson
Wilson returned in a divided decade, governing amid inflation, union pressure, and economic strain.
Labour1976–1979
James Callaghan
Callaghan struggled through austerity and unrest, ending with the Winter of Discontent and Labour’s defeat.
Labour1997–2007
Sir Tony Blair
Blair led New Labour to three election victories, pairing domestic reform with the divisive Iraq War.
Labour2007–2010
Gordon Brown
Brown’s premiership was dominated by the global financial crisis and the politics of recession and recovery.
Labour2024–present
Sir Keir Starmer
Starmer entered Downing Street after Labour’s 2024 victory, promising stability, reform, and a reset in government.
National Labour
1 prime minister
National Labour1931–1935
Ramsay MacDonald
MacDonald stayed in office at the head of a National Government, a move that split Labour and reshaped politics.
Conservative Coalition
1 prime minister
Conservative Coalition1940–1945
Sir Winston Churchill
Churchill’s wartime leadership made him one of the central political figures in British and global history.
Frequently asked questions
Who was the first British prime minister?
Robert Walpole is generally treated as the first British prime minister. He took office in 1721 and set the pattern for the role as it developed in the eighteenth century.
Who is the current British prime minister?
Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister in 2024 following a Labour general election victory.
Why do some prime ministers appear more than once?
Several prime ministers returned to office after losing power, resigning, or heading a new ministry later on. This page lists each separate premiership in chronological order.
Which party has produced the most prime ministers?
Historically, Whig, Tory, Conservative, and Liberal traditions have dominated, with Labour emerging in the twentieth century as a major governing party.
Who served the longest as prime minister?
Sir Robert Walpole is usually counted as the longest-serving British prime minister, with a tenure of more than twenty years.
