UK Prime Ministers Timeline

UK Prime Ministers Timeline

This timeline shows most of the early life, the political career and death of each Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from the middle of the dawn of the current political parties, 10 June 1846; the formation of the Liberal and Conservative parties was officially in 1832 and 1859 respectively. The first Prime Minister was Robert Walpole in the early 18th century.

Unlike countries where the leader is elected directly to the highest political office of a separate executive, in order to maintain the ongoing confidence of the House in both the executive and the government policy makers of the legislature, it can be seen below that the Prime Minister must first establish a political career in the UK Parliament and typically serves many years in the House of Commons before becoming Prime Minister, and in some cases for many years afterwards.

Since the (3rd) Marquess of Salisbury who was chosen by his party to lead the country a third time from 1895-1903, all time in Parliament service before being Prime Minister has been in the House of Commons, apart from Sir Alec Douglas-Home's period as a member of the Government while in the House of Lords 1951-63, though he was previously the elected member for Lanark 1931-1945. Before becoming Prime Minister he was returned to the Commons by winning a by-election on the recess death of MP Gilmour Leburn whose sister party was the Unionist Party (Scotland).