please empty your brain below
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Please expand your list to include the best Prime Minister of the 20th Century and one overwhelmingly elected 'by the nation' - Clement Attlee.
RayL | 08.07.16 - 7:34 a.m. | #
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Seeing as they've ruled out another general election once elected as leader - they may turn out to be the next Gordon Brown.
Leadsom is the right wing equivalent of Jeremy Corbyn, so may be a favourite with party members and just as effective.
| 08.07.16 - 8:10 a.m. | #
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"The nation" does not choose a Prime Minister. Formally, the Queen does, but in practice the party with the most MPs gets to choose which of its MPs is PM. All we (the nation) get to do is vote for the MPs every 5 years or so.
(Attlee won by a wide margin in 1945, but he only just retained power in 1950, but he was thrown out in 1951. Amazing how much he got done in such a short time.)
As far as I can see, with only one, possibly two, exceptions, no successor PM in the 20th or 21st centuries (i.e. one who was not the leader of the winning party at the time of the previous general election) has immediately called a general election to get a new mandate. (The exceptions are Campbell-Bannerman, who took over when Balfour resigned in December 1905, and won in January 1906 - and possibly Baldwin, who called an election in December 1923 after coming to power in the May - he won the most seats but could not form a coalition with a majority.)
Brown, Major, Callaghan, Douglas-Home (also the last PM not to be an MP, for a couple of months in 1963), Macmillan, Churchill (1940), Chamberlain, Baldwin (1923), Lloyd-George, Asquith, Campbell-Bannerman, Balfour.
Andrew | 08.07.16 - 8:25 a.m. | #
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Cameron was not chosen by "The Nation" in 2010. If Gordon Brown had been able to form a coalition, he could have remained as PM.
Nick Clegg chose to go with Cameron, not Brown, so he chose our PM in 2010.
dg writes: Agreed, and amended, thanks.
Rosemary T. | 08.07.16 - 8:50 a.m. | #
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Go for a GE, the Tories will increase their majority.
Agent Z | 08.07.16 - 9:22 a.m. | #
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"Clegg chose to go with Cameron"?
No, Gordon Brown ruled a coalition out..
Labour might still be in power now, if he hadn't.
IsarSteve | 08.07.16 - 10:21 a.m. | #
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Has anyone actually seen Nigel Farage and Angela Leadsom together?
Gerald | Homepage | 08.07.16 - 3:21 p.m. | #
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What went on after the 2010 election was very secretive, but I don't think Gordon Brown ruled a coalition out. The reports at the time suggested that Clegg was prepared to form a coalition with either party, but his price for forming a coalition with Labour was Brown standing down. So you could spin it to say that it was not Clegg's decision, but Gordon Brown's decision not to let another Labour MP become leader, that handed the premiership to Cameron.
(He did stand down once he was Leader of the Opposition)
We came so close, a year or so ago, to having Alan Johnson and Boris Johnson as respectively PM and leader of the Opposition.
timbo | 08.07.16 - 3:30 p.m. | #
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Couldn't the names have been in their 'colours'? Instead of all blue.
dg writes: The names are all blue because they're links. The arrows in front are in their 'colours'.
Working Class Hero | 08.07.16 - 5:53 p.m. | #
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Re Harold Wilson - there were TWO elections in 1974, namely February and October.
Steve Taylor | 08.07.16 - 6:27 p.m. | #
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NB Andrea, not Angela.
dg writes: Ulp, yes, fixed, thanks.
Merlin | 08.07.16 - 8:09 p.m. | #
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John Major became leader of the Conservative party & prime minister in 1990. He (or rather the party) won the subsequent General Election in May 1992.
Old Buccaneer | 09.07.16 - 9:11 a.m. | #
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So, ultimately, the next Prime Minister's identity was decided by Andrea Leadsom.
Timbo | 11.07.16 - 9:26 p.m. | #
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