UK set for record sixth new prime minister in 10 years
Ian Jones – Press Association
Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation means the UK is set for a record-breaking sixth new prime minister in 10 years – having previously seen six premiers span a period of 40 years.
The past decade has seen a rapid turnover in prime ministers, beginning with Theresa May (2016-19), then Boris Johnson (2019-22), Liz Truss (2022), Rishi Sunak (2022-24) and now Sir Keir Starmer (2024-26), with the next premier due to take office by September.
By contrast, the preceding four decades saw only six people occupy 10 Downing Street: Jim Callaghan (1976-79), Margaret Thatcher (1979-90), John Major (1990-97), Tony Blair (1997-2007), Gordon Brown (2007-10) and David Cameron (2010-16).
The UK has never in modern political history seen six different people fill the role of prime minister within the span of 10 years.
There were five prime ministers between 1954 and 1964: Winston Churchill (to 1955), Anthony Eden (1955-57), Harold Macmillan (1957-63), Alec Douglas-Home (1963-64) and Harold Wilson (1964-70).
A similar number held the office between 1914 and 1924: Herbert Asquith (to 1916), David Lloyd George (2016-22), Andrew Bonar Law (1922-23), Stanley Baldwin (1923-24) and Ramsay MacDonald (1924).
But you would need to go back to the 19th century, to a time when only a minority of the population had the vote, and the UK had yet to become a full parliamentary democracy, to find a turnover of prime ministers equivalent to that of the present day.
When Sir Keir Starmer’s successor takes office – which is due to happen by September – the UK will have nine living former prime ministers: another record.
The nine prime ministers, with their current titles, are: Sir John Major, Sir Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Lord Cameron, Baroness May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.
They are likely to appear together in public in November, along with the new prime minister, at the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in central London.
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Westminster isn’t working.
The Senedd is often mocked by people who claim it’s not a proper parliament, yet these very same people make no comment about the shambles that Westminster has been for a generation.
It’ll be one more if Burnham follows the Truss model and installs a new chancellor with a radical mandate that triggers a bond market meltdown.
Andy Burnham – if it is him – will be the 7th UK PM since the (disastrous) vote to leave the EU 10 years years ago. It really would be no exageration to say the british state has become ungovernable since Brexit – and to think unionist dolts have the temerity to challenge the stability and practicality of a independent Wales.
Brexit eh. Farage bears huge responsibility for his mess.
Where is that turgid grifter anyway?