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list of prime ministers of Great Britain and the United Kingdom
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. Sir Robert Walpole is generally considered to have been Britainβs first prime minister. This is a chronologically ordered list of the prime ministers, from the earliest to the most recent.
- Robert Walpole (1721β42)
- Spencer Compton (1742β43)
- Henry Pelham (1743β54)
- Thomas Pelham-Holles (1754β56; 1st time)
- William Cavendish (1756β57)
- Thomas Pelham-Holles (1757β62; 2nd time)
- John Stuart (1762β63)
- George Grenville (1763β65)
- Charles Watson Wentworth (1765β66; 1st time)
- William Pitt, the Elder (1766β68)
- Augustus Henry Fitzroy (1768β70)
- Frederick North (1770β82)
- Charles Watson Wentworth (1782; 2nd time)
- William Petty-Fitzmaurice (1782β83)
- William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1783; 1st time)
- William Pitt, the Younger (1783β1801; 1st time)
- Henry Addington (1801β04)
- William Pitt, the Younger (1804β06; 2nd time)
- William Wyndham Grenville (1806β07)
- William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1807β09; 2nd time)
- Spencer Perceval (1809β12)
- Robert Banks Jenkinson (1812β27)
- George Canning (1827)
- Frederick John Robinson (1827β28)
- Arthur Wellesley (1828β30; 1st time)
- Charles Grey (1830β34)
- William Lamb (1834; 1st time)
- Arthur Wellesley (1834; 2nd time)
- Robert Peel (1834β35; 1st time)
- William Lamb (1835β41; 2nd time)
- Robert Peel (1841β46; 2nd time)
- John Russell (1846β52; 1st time)
- Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1852; 1st time)
- George Hamilton-Gordon (1852β55)
- Henry John Temple (1855β58; 1st time)
- Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1858β59; 2nd time)
- Henry John Temple (1859β65; 2nd time)
- John Russell (1865β66; 2nd time)
- Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1866β68; 3rd time)
- Benjamin Disraeli (1868; 1st time)
- William Ewart Gladstone (1868β74; 1st time)
- Benjamin Disraeli (1874β80; 2nd time)
- William Ewart Gladstone (1880β85; 2nd time)
- Robert Cecil (1885β86; 1st time)
- William Ewart Gladstone (1886; 3rd time)
- Robert Cecil (1886β92; 2nd time)
- William Ewart Gladstone (1892β94; 4th time)
- Archibald Philip Primrose (1894β95)
- Robert Cecil (1895β1902; 3rd time)
- Arthur James Balfour (1902β05)
- Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1905β08)
- H.H. Asquith (1908β16)
- David Lloyd George (1916β22)
- Bonar Law (1922β23)
- Stanley Baldwin (1923β24; 1st time)
- Ramsay Macdonald (1924; 1st time)
- Stanley Baldwin (1924β29; 2nd time)
- Ramsay Macdonald (1929β35; 2nd time)
- Stanley Baldwin (1935β37; 3rd time)
- Neville Chamberlain (1937β40)
- Winston Churchill (1940β45; 1st time)
- Clement Attlee (1945β51)
- Winston Churchill (1951β55; 2nd time)
- Anthony Eden (1955β57)
- Harold Macmillan (1957β63)
- Alec Douglas-Home (1963β64)
- Harold Wilson (1964β70; 1st time)
- Edward Heath (1970β74)
- Harold Wilson (1974β76; 2nd time)
- James Callaghan (1976β79)
- Margaret Thatcher (1979β90)
- John Major (1990β97)
- Tony Blair (1997β2007)
- Gordon Brown (2007β10)
- David Cameron (2010β16)
- Theresa May (2016β19)
- Boris Johnson (2019β22)
- Liz Truss (2022)
- Rishi Sunak (2022β24)
- Keir Starmer (2024β26)
- Andy Burnham (2026β )
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering.
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