Liz Truss, who resigned on Thursday, 20 October, set the ‘record’ for shortest time as British prime minister – just 45 days. Photo: Joe Giddens / POOL / AFP
List of every British prime minister as Liz Truss sets unwanted record
Liz Truss, who resigned on Thursday, 20 October, set the ‘record’ for shortest time as British prime minister – just 44 days.
Liz Truss, who resigned on Thursday, 20 October, set the ‘record’ for shortest time as British prime minister – just 45 days. Photo: Joe Giddens / POOL / AFP
The office of prime minister developed in Britain in the 18th century, when King George I ceased attending meetings of his ministers and it was left to powerful premiers to act as government chief executive.
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Sir Robert Walpole is generally considered to have been Britain’s first prime minister.
Below, a chronologically ordered list of the prime ministers, from the earliest to the most recent.
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Liz Truss, who resigned on Thursday, 20 October, set the ‘record’ for shortest time in office – just 45 days.
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- Robert Walpole (1721–42)
- Spencer Compton (1742–43)
- Henry Pelham (1743–54)
- Thomas Pelham-Holles (1754–56; 1st time)
- William Cavendish (1756–57)
- Thomas Pelham-Holles (1757–62; 2nd time)
- John Stuart (1762–63)
- George Grenville (1763–65)
- Charles Watson Wentworth (1765–66; 1st time)
- William Pitt, the Elder (1766–68)
- Augustus Henry Fitzroy (1768–70)
- Frederick North (1770–82)
- Charles Watson Wentworth (1782; 2nd time)
- William Petty-Fitzmaurice (1782–83)
- William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1783; 1st time)
- William Pitt, the Younger (1783–1801; 1st time)
- Henry Addington (1801–04)
- William Pitt, the Younger (1804–06; 2nd time)
- William Wyndham Grenville (1806–07)
- William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1807–09; 2nd time)
- Spencer Perceval (1809–12)
- Robert Banks Jenkinson (1812–27)
- George Canning (1827)
- Frederick John Robinson (1827–28)
- Arthur Wellesley (1828–30; 1st time)
- Charles Grey (1830–34)
- William Lamb (1834; 1st time)
- Arthur Wellesley (1834; 2nd time)
- Robert Peel (1834–35; 1st time)
- William Lamb (1835–41; 2nd time)
- Robert Peel (1841–46; 2nd time)
- John Russell (1846–52; 1st time)
- Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1852; 1st time)
- George Hamilton-Gordon (1852–55)
- Henry John Temple (1855–58; 1st time)
- Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1858–59; 2nd time)
- Henry John Temple (1859–65; 2nd time)
- John Russell (1865–66; 2nd time)
- Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1866–68; 3rd time)
- Benjamin Disraeli (1868; 1st time)
- William Ewart Gladstone (1868–74; 1st time)
- Benjamin Disraeli (1874–80; 2nd time)
- William Ewart Gladstone (1880–85; 2nd time)
- Robert Cecil (1885–86; 1st time)
- William Ewart Gladstone (1886; 3rd time)
- Robert Cecil (1886–92; 2nd time)
- William Ewart Gladstone (1892–94; 4th time)
- Archibald Philip Primrose (1894–95)
- Robert Cecil (1895–1902; 3rd time)
- Arthur James Balfour (1902–05)
- Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1905–08)
- H.H. Asquith (1908–16)
- David Lloyd George (1916–22)
- Bonar Law (1922–23)
- Stanley Baldwin (1923–24; 1st time)
- Ramsay Macdonald (1924; 1st time)
- Stanley Baldwin (1924–29; 2nd time)
- Ramsay Macdonald (1929–35; 2nd time)
- Stanley Baldwin (1935–37; 3rd time)
- Neville Chamberlain (1937–40)
- Winston Churchill (1940–45; 1st time)
- Clement Attlee (1945–51)
- Winston Churchill (1951–55; 2nd time)
- Anthony Eden (1955–57)
- Harold Macmillan (1957–63)
- Alec Douglas-Home (1963–64)
- Harold Wilson (1964–70; 1st time)
- Edward Heath (1970–74)
- Harold Wilson (1974–76; 2nd time)
- James Callaghan (1976–79)
- Margaret Thatcher (1979–90)
- John Major (1990–97)
- Tony Blair (1997–2007)
- Gordon Brown (2007–10)
- David Cameron (2010–16)
- Theresa May (2016–19)
- Boris Johnson (2019–22)
- Liz Truss (2022-2022)
