Historical rankings of prime ministers of the United Kingdom explained

Academics, members of Parliament, the general public and journalists alike have attempted to rank prime ministers of the United Kingdom. Those included below generally consist of only a subset of prime ministers, typically those of the 20th century or those who served after the Second World War.

Academic opinion

In December 1999 a BBC Radio 4 poll of 20 prominent historians, politicians and commentators for The Westminster Hour produced the verdict that Churchill was the best British prime minister of the 20th century, with Lloyd George in second place and Clement Attlee in third place. As Blair was still in office he was not ranked. The worst prime minister in that survey was judged to be Anthony Eden.

In 2004, the University of Leeds and Ipsos Mori conducted an online survey of 258 academics who specialised in 20th-century British history and/or politics. There were 139 replies to the survey, a return rate of 54% – by far the most extensive survey done so far. The respondents were asked, among other historical questions, to rate all the 20th-century prime ministers in terms of their success and asking them to assess the key characteristics of successful ones. Respondents were asked to indicate on a scale of 0 to 10 how successful or unsuccessful they considered each prime minister to have been in office (with 0 being highly unsuccessful and 10 highly successful). A mean of the scores was calculated and a league table based on the mean scores. The five Labour prime ministers were, on average, judged to have been the most successful, with a mean of 6.0 (median of 5.9). The three Liberals averaged 5.8 (median of 6.2) and the twelve Conservatives 4.8 (median of 4.1).

In a 2006 issue of BBC History, historian Francis Beckett ranked the 20th-century prime ministers with points out of five in 2006, based on how well the leaders implemented their policies – not on the policies themselves. Margaret Thatcher and Clement Attlee shared the highest ranking.

In 2010, the University of Leeds and Woodnewton Associates carried out a survey of 106 academics who specialised in British politics or British history, to rank the performance of all 12 prime ministers who served between 1945 and 2010. Churchill's ranking was thus determined from his second term only.

In October 2016 the University of Leeds, in conjunction with Woodnewton Associates, surveyed 82 academics specialising in post-1945 British history and politics, following the Brexit referendum. Due to the date range, Churchill's oft-lauded war ministry and caretaker ministry were not in contention and he was judged solely on his second premiership.

In June 2021 the University of Leeds, again with Woodnewton Associates, surveyed 93 academics specialising in British politics and modern British history to rank the performance of post-war prime ministers from Churchill to Theresa May.^[1]

The following table collects these surveys, although they are not all comparable.

Key:

Rankings of prime ministers by academics

Prime Minister	Party	Tenure
data-sort-value="Salisbury, Marquess of"	The Marquess of Salisbury	Conservative	1885–1886 1886–1892 1895–1902	07^[2]	10	03	–	–	–
data-sort-value="Balfour, Arthur"	Arthur Balfour	Conservative	1902–1905	16	18	04	–	–	–
data-sort-value="Campbell-Bannerman, Henry"	Henry Campbell-Bannerman	Liberal	1905–1908	09	11	02	–	–	–
data-sort-value="Asquith, HH"	H. H. Asquith	Liberal	1908–1916	04	07	03	–	–	–
data-sort-value="Lloyd George, David"	David Lloyd George	Liberal	1916–1922	02	03	03	–	–	–
data-sort-value="Law, Bonar"	Bonar Law	Conservative	1922–1923	13	16	05	–	–	–
data-sort-value="Baldwin, Stanley"	Stanley Baldwin	Conservative	1923–1924 1924–1929 1935–1937	08	08	03	–	–	–
data-sort-value="MacDonald, Ramsay"	Ramsay MacDonald	Labour National Labour	1924 1929–1935	14	14	05	–	–	–
data-sort-value="Chamberlain, Neville"	Neville Chamberlain	Conservative	1937–1940	18	17	06	–	–	–
data-sort-value="Churchill, Winston"	Winston Churchill	Conservative	1940–1945 1951–1955	01	02	02	06	07	07=
data-sort-value="Attlee, Clement"	Clement Attlee	Labour	1945–1951	03	01	01	01	01	01
data-sort-value="Eden, Anthony"	Anthony Eden	Conservative	1955–1957	19	20	06	12	13	13=
data-sort-value="Macmillan, Harold"	Harold Macmillan	Conservative	1957–1963	06	05	02	04	04	05
data-sort-value="Douglas-Home, Alec"	Alec Douglas-Home	Conservative	1963–1964	15	19	05	11	12	12
data-sort-value="Wilson, Harold"	Harold Wilson	Labour	1964–1970 1974–1976	10	09	03	05	05	04
data-sort-value="Heath, Edward"	Edward Heath	Conservative	1970–1974	11	13	02	09	09	10
data-sort-value="Callaghan, James"	James Callaghan	Labour	1976–1979	12	12	04	07	08	07=
data-sort-value="Thatcher, Margaret"	Margaret Thatcher	Conservative	1979–1990	05	04	01	02	02	02
data-sort-value="Major, John"	John Major	Conservative	1990–1997	17	15	05	08	06	07=
data-sort-value="Blair, Tony"	Tony Blair	Labour	1997–2007	–	06	03	03	03	03
data-sort-value="Brown, Gordon"	Gordon Brown	Labour	2007–2010	–	–	–	10	10	06
data-sort-value="Cameron, David"	David Cameron	Conservative	2010–2016	–	–	–	–	11	11
data-sort-value="May, Theresa"	Theresa May	Conservative	2016–2019	–	–	–	–	–	13=

Opinion of members of Parliament

In 2013, a group of academic staff and students at Royal Holloway, University of London, conducted a postal survey of British members of Parliament, asking them to evaluate the success of post-war British prime ministers. Some 158 MPs replied to the survey, a response rate of 24%. The respondents were 69 Conservatives, 67 Labour MPs, 14 Liberal Democrats and 8 MPs from other parties.

The survey used the same question employed in the 2004 and 2010 University of Leeds studies: MPs were asked how successful or unsuccessful they considered each prime minister to have been using a 0 to 10 scale, where 0 meant highly unsuccessful and 10 meant highly successful.

Overall, MPs rated Margaret Thatcher as the most successful post-war prime minister, just ahead of Clement Attlee. With the exception of Edward Heath, who was judged more favourably by Labour MPs than by Conservatives, evaluations were split along party lines: Conservative MPs tended to consider Conservative prime ministers to be more successful than did Labour MPs, and Labour MPs generally gave Labour prime ministers higher scores than did Conservative MPs.

In 2023 the survey was redone with 65 correspondences.

Key:

Rankings of prime ministers by members of Parliament

Prime Minister	Party	Tenure
Winston Churchill	Conservative	(1940–1945) 1951–1955	04^[3]	04
Clement Attlee	Labour	1945–1951	02	02
Anthony Eden	Conservative	1955–1957	11	15
Harold Macmillan	Conservative	1957–1963	05	06
Alec Douglas-Home	Conservative	1963–1964	10	14
Harold Wilson	Labour	1964–1970 1974–1976	06	05
Edward Heath	Conservative	1970–1974	09	12
James Callaghan	Labour	1976–1979	08	10
Margaret Thatcher	Conservative	1979–1990	01	01
John Major	Conservative	1990–1997	07	08
Tony Blair	Labour	1997–2007	03	03
Gordon Brown	Labour	2007–2010	12	09
David Cameron	Conservative	2010–2016	–	07
Theresa May	Conservative	2016–2019	–	13
Boris Johnson	Conservative	2019–2022	–	11
Liz Truss	Conservative	2022	–	16

Popular opinion

BBC polls 2007 and 2008

The BBC television programme The Daily Politics asked viewers in 2007 to select their favourite prime minister out of a list of ten who served between 1945 and 2007 (excluding Churchill). In 2008, BBC Newsnight held a poll of 27,000 people, to decide the UK's greatest and worst post-war prime minister.

Key:

Rankings of prime ministers by the general public

Prime Minister	Party	Tenure
Winston Churchill	Conservative	(1940–1945) 1951–1955	–	01
Clement Attlee	Labour	1945–1951	02	02
Anthony Eden	Conservative	1955–1957	09	11
Harold Macmillan	Conservative	1957–1963	06	04
Alec Douglas-Home	Conservative	1963–1964	08	10
Harold Wilson	Labour	1964–1970 1974–1976	04	05
Edward Heath	Conservative	1970–1974	07	07
James Callaghan	Labour	1976–1979	10	09
Margaret Thatcher	Conservative	1979–1990	01	03
John Major	Conservative	1990–1997	05	08
Tony Blair	Labour	1997–2007	03^[4]	06
Gordon Brown	Labour	2007–2010	–	12

While the poll indicated that respondents should only consider the period from 1945 onwards, whether or not respondents opted to separate Churchill's first term (1940–45) from his second in their evaluation should be weighed in this evaluation versus other polls (e.g. of academics), who generally rate Churchill's second term as being substantially worse than his first by comparison. Additionally, In a BBC poll to find the 100 Greatest Britons in 2002, five prime ministers were ranked in the top 100. Winston Churchill was voted greatest Briton, the Duke of Wellington was in 15th place, Margaret Thatcher was in 16th place, Tony Blair was 67th and David Lloyd George was 79th.

Journalistic opinion

Both The Times and Iain Dale^[5] have specifically ranked all (or almost all) prime ministers of the United Kingdom and prime ministers of Great Britain.

Key:

Rankings of prime ministers by journalists

Prime Minister	Party	Tenure
data-sort-value="Walpole, Robert"	Robert Walpole	Whig	1721–1742	09	14	16	07	10
data-sort-value="Wilmington, Earl of"	Earl of Wilmington	Whig	1742–1743	–	50	51	42	52
data-sort-value="Pelham, Henry"	Henry Pelham	Whig	1743–1754	29	19	34	20	19
data-sort-value="Newcastle, Duke of"	Duke of Newcastle	Whig	1754–1756 1757–1762	41	40	32	41	22
data-sort-value="Devonshire, Duke of"	Duke of Devonshire	Whig	1756–1757	44	35	44	47	53
data-sort-value="Bute, Earl of"	Earl of Bute	Tory	1762–1763	46	44	49	40	42
data-sort-value="Grenville, George"	George Grenville	Whig	1763–1765	48	51	48	39	44
data-sort-value="Rockingham, Marquess of"	Marquess of Rockingham	Whig	1765–1766 1782	32	30	42	38	27
data-sort-value="Pitt, Elder"	William Pitt the Elder	Whig	1766–1768	16	25	14	18	25
data-sort-value="Grafton, Duke of"	Duke of Grafton	Whig	1768–1770	49	42	50	49	38
data-sort-value="North, Lord"	Lord North	Tory	1770–1782	50	49	37	44	40
data-sort-value="Shelburne, Earl of"	Earl of Shelburne	Whig	1782–1783	26	29	41	05	41
data-sort-value="Portland, Duke of"	Duke of Portland	Whig Tory	1783 1807–1809	39	27	43	37	43
data-sort-value="Pitt, Younger"	William Pitt the Younger	Tory	1783–1801 1804–1806	04	12	05	03	03
data-sort-value="Addington, Henry"	Henry Addington	Tory	1801–1804	39	36	39	36	26
data-sort-value="Grenville, Baron"	Baron Grenville	Whig	1806–1807	43	39	40	35	36
data-sort-value="Perceval, Spencer"	Spencer Perceval	Tory	1809–1812	36	38	47	33	37
data-sort-value="Liverpool, Earl of"	Earl of Liverpool	Tory	1812–1827	19	22	22	15	20
data-sort-value="Canning, George"	George Canning	Tory	1827	31	08	36	23	54
data-sort-value="Goderich, Viscount"	Viscount Goderich	Tory	1827–1828	–	37	52	51	55
data-sort-value="Wellington, Duke of"	Duke of Wellington	Tory	1828–1830 1834	24	18	30	17	33
data-sort-value="Grey, Earl"	Earl Grey	Whig	1830–1834	08	09	10	06	13
data-sort-value="Melbourne, Viscount"	Viscount Melbourne	Whig	1834 1835–1841	25	26	21	32	24
data-sort-value="Peel, Robert"	Robert Peel	Conservative	1834–1835 1841–1846	06	06	08	08	12
data-sort-value="Russell, Lord John"	Lord John Russell	Whig Liberal	1846–1852 1865–1866	21	15	29	14	18
data-sort-value="Derby, Earl of"	Earl of Derby	Conservative	1852 1858–1859 1866–1868	18	23	19	16	16
data-sort-value="Aberdeen, Earl of"	Earl of Aberdeen	Peelite	1852–1855	42	41	31	43	39
data-sort-value="Palmerston, Viscount"	Viscount Palmerston	Whig Liberal	1855–1858 1859–1865	13	11	20	11	17
data-sort-value="Disraeli, Benjamin"	Benjamin Disraeli	Conservative	1868 1874–1880	10	07	06	09	08
data-sort-value="Gladstone, William Ewart"	William Ewart Gladstone	Liberal	1868–1874 1880–1885 1886 1892–1894	03	04	02	04	02
data-sort-value="Salisbury, Marquess of"	Marquess of Salisbury	Conservative	1885–1886 1886–1892 1895–1902	11	10	12	25	09
data-sort-value="Rosebery, Earl of"	Earl of Rosebery	Liberal	1894–1895	45	46	46	50	46
data-sort-value="Balfour, Arthur"	Arthur Balfour	Conservative	1902–1905	30	28	38	31	31
data-sort-value="Campbell-Bannerman, Henry"	Henry Campbell-Bannerman	Liberal	1905–1908	22	24	26	30	23
data-sort-value="Asquith, HH"	H. H. Asquith	Liberal	1908–1916	11	21	09	26	07
data-sort-value="Lloyd George, David"	David Lloyd George	Liberal	1916–1922	02	02	03	02	06
data-sort-value="Law, Bonar"	Bonar Law	Conservative	1922–1923	34	47	35	24	49
data-sort-value="Baldwin, Stanley"	Stanley Baldwin	Conservative	1923–1924 1924–1929 1935–1937	14	20	11	13	11
data-sort-value="MacDonald, Ramsay"	Ramsay MacDonald	Labour National Labour	1924 1929–1935	33	48	33	29	30
data-sort-value="Chamberlain, Neville"	Neville Chamberlain	Conservative	1937–1940	35	45	28	52	47
data-sort-value="Churchill, Winston"	Winston Churchill	Conservative	1940–1945 1951–1955	01	01	01	01	01
data-sort-value="Attlee, Clement"	Clement Attlee	Labour	1945–1951	07	05	07	22	05
data-sort-value="Eden, Anthony"	Anthony Eden	Conservative	1955–1957	47	43	45	48	51
data-sort-value="Macmillan, Harold"	Harold Macmillan	Conservative	1957–1963	15	17	13	21	21
data-sort-value="Douglas-Home, Alec"	Alec Douglas-Home	Conservative	1963–1964	36	32	27	34	48
data-sort-value="Wilson, Harold"	Harold Wilson	Labour	1964–1970 1974–1976	20	33	17	19	15
data-sort-value="Heath, Edward"	Edward Heath	Conservative	1970–1974	23	13	18	46	35
data-sort-value="Callaghan, James"	James Callaghan	Labour	1976–1979	27	31	24	27	34
data-sort-value="Thatcher, Margaret"	Margaret Thatcher	Conservative	1979–1990	05	03	04	10	04
data-sort-value="Major, John"	John Major	Conservative	1990–1997	28	16	23	28	28
data-sort-value="Blair, Tony"	Tony Blair	Labour	1997–2007	16	34	15	12	14
data-sort-value="Brown, Gordon"	Gordon Brown	Labour	2007–2010	36^[6]	52	25	45	32
data-sort-value="Cameron, David"	David Cameron	Conservative	2010–2016	–	–	–	–	29
data-sort-value="May, Theresa"	Theresa May	Conservative	2016–2019	–	–	–	–	50
data-sort-value="Johnson, Boris"	Boris Johnson	Conservative	2019–2022	–	–	–	–	45

See also

• List of current heads of government in the United Kingdom and dependencies
• 100 Greatest Britons

Other countries

• Historical rankings of prime ministers of Australia
• Historical rankings of prime ministers of Canada
• Historical rankings of chancellors of Germany
• Historical rankings of prime ministers of the Netherlands
• Historical rankings of presidents of the United States

Notes and References

1. Web site: 7 July 2021 . Professor Kevin Theakston co-authors article ranking post-war Prime Ministers . 11 August 2023 . University of Leeds.
2. Ranking might only cover the Marquess of Salisbury's premiership after 1900 or between 1895 and 1902, not between 1885 and 1886 or 1886 and 1892.
3. Ranking only covers Winston Churchill's premiership between 1951 and 1955, not between 1940 and 1945.
4. Ranking completed while the prime minister was in office.
5. Web site: Ranking 55 Prime Ministers . 12 November 2020 . 9 June 2021 . Dale . Iain . 15 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210515012636/https://www.iaindale.com/articles/ranking-our-55-prime-ministers-an-impossible-task-but-a-fascinating-one . live .
6. Ranking may have been completed while the prime minister was in office.