British Prime Ministers

This list is comprised of British Prime Ministers. The Prime Minister is appointed by the British monarch, the nominal head of state, and governs in the monarch's name. In modern times the Prime Minister is regarded as the real leader of the country.

The position evolved slowly and was never created by any law. Robert Walpole (1676-1745) is generally viewed as the first Prime Minister after he became the First Lord of the Treasury in 1721.

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NameYearsOther Names
Robert Walpole1721-1742
Spencer Compton1742-1743
Henry Pelham1743-1754
Thomas Pelham-Holles1754-1756; 1757-1762
William Cavendish1756-1757
John Stuart1762-1763
George Grenville1763-1765
Charles Watson-Wentworth1765-1766; 1782
William Pitt the Elder1766-1768
Augustus FitzRoy1768-1770
Frederick North1770-1782
William Petty1782-1783
William Cavendish-Bentinck1783; 1807-1809
William Pitt the Younger1783-1801; 1804-1806
Henry Addington1801-1804
William Grenville1806-1807
Spencer Perceval1809-1812
Robert Jenkinson1812-1827
George Canning1827
F. J. Robinson1827-1828
Arthur Wellesley1828-1830; 1834
Charles Grey1830-1834
William Lamb1834; 1835-1841
Robert Peel1834-1835; 1841-1846
John Russell1846-1852; 1865-1866
Edward Smith-Stanley1852; 1858-1859; 1866-1868
George Hamilton-Gordon1852-1855
Henry John Temple1855-1858; 1859-1865
Benjamin Disraeli1868; 1874-1880
William Ewart Gladstone1868-1874; 1880-1885; 1886; 1892-1894
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil1885-1886; 1886-1892; 1895-1902
Archibald Primrose1894-1895
Arthur Balfour1902-1905
Henry Campbell-Bannerman1905-1908
Herbert Henry Asquith1908-1916
David Lloyd George1916-1922
Bonar Law1922-1923
Stanley Baldwin1923-1924; 1924-1929; 1935-1937
Ramsay MacDonald1924; 1929-1935
Neville Chamberlain1937-1940
Winston Churchill1940-1945; 1951-1955
Clement Attlee1945-1951
Anthony Eden1955-1957
Harold Macmillan1957-1963
Alec Douglas-Home1963-1964
Harold Wilson1964-1970; 1974-1976
Edward Heath1970-1974
James Callaghan1976-1979
Margaret Thatcher1979-1990
John Major1990-1997
Tony Blair1997-2007
Gordon Brown2007-2010
David Cameron2010-2016
Theresa May2016-2019(Brasier)
Boris Johnson2019-2022
Liz Truss2022
Rishi Sunak2022-2024
Keir Starmer2024-