Who were the British prime ministers since 1963?

Answer 1

Neville Chamberlain (National Government/Conservative)1937-40 Winston Churchill (Wartime Coalition and Conservative)1940-5 and 1951-5 Clement Attlee (Labour)1945-51 Anthony Eden (Conservative)1955-7 Harold Macmillan (Conservative)1957-63 Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative)1963/4 Harold Wilson (Labour)1964-70 and 1974-6 Edward Heath (Conservative)1970-4 James Callaghan (Labour)1976-9 Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)1979-90 John Major (Conservative)1990-7 Tony Blair (Labour)1997-2007 Gordon Brown (Labour)2007-present

Answer 2

At the beginning of 1940 it was Neville Chamberlain, although he resigned soon after the British retreat from Dunkirk and was replaced by Winston Churchill. Churchill was Prime Minister from 1940 - 45, until soon after World War 2 ended in Europe; although he was a Conservative, he headed a coalition government of all political parties working together to cope with the international crisis.

Soon after the end of the European war, there was a General Election which saw Clement Attlee elected as head of a Labour Government; he was PM when the war ended in the Far East, and is also credited as having introduced the National Health service and the Welfare State.

The 1950 election saw Churchill returned to office, although his effectiveness as a peacetime Premier was not equal to his performance as a Wartime leader, and he stood down due to failing health at the '55 election, although this was again won by the Conservatives headed by Churchill's former Chancellor, Anthony Eden. Eden was responsible for Britain's involvement in the Suez Crisis of 1956 / '57- he was banking upon US support for the British invasion of the Canal Zone, which failed to materialise as this could have sparked a major Superpower confrontation. He thus resigned in '57 and was replaced by his Chancellor, Harold MacMillan, who was elected in his own right in 1960.

MacMillan was PM during the Cuba Crisis of 1962, and US President John F. Kennedy depended upon him in large measure for advice on how to handle the situation, but MacMillan resigned the following year (many people think that this was due to the Profumo Affair, but it was in fact due to him having been wrongly diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, which in fact he didn't have). He was replaced by his Chancellor Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who was only in office for a year before a sweeping Labour victory at the '64 election brought in Harold Wilson as the new Prime Minister. Wilson was in power until 1970, when Edward Heath replaced him as head of a Conservative Government.

Heath was in office until '74, but Wilson returned to power in the election of that year. Ill-health forced him to resign in '76 and hand over his office to his Chancellor, James Callaghan. Like Douglas-Home, Callaghan was only ever a 'caretaker' Prime Minister, never elected in his own right and replaced by Margaret Thatcher at the '79 election. Thatcher was in office for over a decade, for the whole of the 1980s, until being forced to resign in late 1990 after her introduction of the deeply unpopular 'Poll Tax' resulted in a nationwide refusal to pay it, rioting in London and rebellion by several of her own top Ministers. She was replaced by her Chancellor John Major, who was PM during the first Gulf War and elected in his own right in '92. He was PM until 1997, when Tony Blair swept to office at the head of a 'New Labour' government. He had moved the party away from it's Socialist roots, abolished it's commitment to State ownership of national assets, ad adopted policies which in some respects were further to the Right than those of the Conservatives!

he was in power for 10 years until 2007, when he was forced to stand down as Labour leader due to his having become massively unpopular for supporting the USA in the Iraq War (which was technically illegal under International Law) and for his involvement in corruption, bribery and cronyism. He was replaced by his Chancellor Gordon Brown in the election of that year, but although Brown had proved to be a highly effective and competent Chancellor, he was a weak Premier and served only a single term in office.

SO it was:

1940 Neville Chamberlain (Coalition)

1940 - '45 Winston Churchill (Coalition)

1945 - '50 Clement Attlee (Labour)

1950 - '55 Winston Churchill again

1955 - '57 Anthony Eden (Conservative)

1957 - '63 Harold MacMillan (Conservative)

1963 - '64 Sir Alec Dougls-Home (Conservative)

1964 - '70 Harold Wilson (Labour)

1970 - '74 Edward Heath (Conservative)

1974 - '76 Harold Wilson again

1976 - '79 James Callaghan (Labour)

1979 - '90 Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)

1990 - '97 John Major (Conservative)

1997 - 2007 Tony Blair (New Labour)

2007 -2010 Gordon Brown (New Labour)

Labour under Brown was swept from office at the 2010 elections, but although the Conservatives won the biggest share of the vote, they didn't have enough to make up the minimum number of MPs needed by law to form a Government. They thus entered a Coalition with the Liberal Democrats, which is currently governing the UK.