The role of the Prime Minister - What they do and what powers they have?
The appointment of the Prime Minister
The head of the British Government is the Prime Minister.
The leader of the largest party in the House of Commons is by convention asked by the Monarch to be Prime Minister
and to form a government. This can only take place after the loser of the election has conceded defeat and tendered his
or her resignation in person at the Palace.
In the event that there is no clear winner – a hung Parliament – the ‘sitting’ Prime Minister is permitted to remain in
office until it is necessary to resign, whether that be as a result of failed coalition negotiations or after the
Government’s legislative programme (the Queen’s Speech) is defeated in the Commons, in which case the Leader of
the Opposition would be invited to form a government.
The guiding principles for the use of the Monarch’s ‘personal prerogative’ are that government should persist and that
there should not be elections in quick succession. The monarch’s Private Secretary meets with the Cabinet Secretary
to consider what options are available, but the ultimate decision remains with the Crown.
Once appointed by the Monarch (in the ceremony known anachronistically as the ‘kissing of the hands’), the Prime
Minister has absolute discretion over who will be invited to become Ministers, what direction the Government and
country will take and how the departments of government will be structured.
Powers of the Prime Minister
The holder of the office of Prime Minister has ultimate power over, and responsibility for, all policies made and
implemented by government, seeing all Cabinet papers and being the sole arbiter of disputes between the organs of
government.
Added to these over-arching responsibilities are individual powers to operate the Royal Prerogative (as the de facto
chair of the Privy Council) – to declare war (including single-handedly authorising the launch of a nuclear strike), to
sign international treaties and to represent the UK at the highest level in international and European negotiations.
It is the Prime Minister alone who requests the dissolution of Parliament, triggering a general election, and who has
overall responsibility for the use of Government time in the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Other Prime Ministerial powers include those to recommend the appointment of key figures, including peers, religious
leaders, top judges and military heads as well as the chairs of public corporations such as the BBC.
Prime Ministers have a weekly audience with the Monarch, normally on a Tuesday evening. It is widely held that this
traditional meeting of the heads of government and state, provides the Prime Minister with the chance to reflect on
events, to consult and seek advice on affairs of state with the absolute knowledge of confidentiality.
The Prime Minister’s accountability to Parliament comes in the form of oral questions once a week and scrutiny at the
hands of the Commons’ Liaison Committee every six months.
Title and earnings
The title ‘Prime Minister’ is somewhat amorphous and hardly appears on the statute book, even then it is referred to as
a ‘position’ rather than an ‘office’. The Prime Minister has the title of First Lord of the Treasury (the name on the door
of 10 Downing Street) and Minister for the Civil Service. By convention, the Prime Minister is said to be ‘primus inter
pares’ (first among equals) in Cabinet.
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 Britain’s first prime minister. This is a chronologically ordered list of the prime
ministers, from the earliest to the most recent.
 Robert Walpole (1721–42)
 Spencer Compton (1742–43)
 Henry Pelham (1743–54)
 Thomas Pelham-Holles (1754–56; 1st time)
 William Cavendish (1756–57)
 Thomas Pelham-Holles (1757–62; 2nd time)
 John Stuart (1762–63)
 George Grenville (1763–65)
 Charles Watson Wentworth (1765–66; 1st time)
 William Pitt, the Elder (1766–68)
 Augustus Henry Fitzroy (1768–70)
 Frederick North (1770–82)
 Charles Watson Wentworth (1782; 2nd time)
 William Petty-Fitzmaurice (1782–83)
 William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1783; 1st time)
 William Pitt, the Younger (1783–1801; 1st time)
 Henry Addington (1801–04)
 William Pitt, the Younger (1804–06; 2nd time)
 William Wyndham Grenville (1806–07)
 William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1807–09; 2nd time)
 Spencer Perceval (1809–12)
 Robert Banks Jenkinson (1812–27)
 George Canning (1827)
 Frederick John Robinson (1827–28)
 Arthur Wellesley (1828–30; 1st time)
 Charles Grey (1830–34)
 William Lamb (1834; 1st time)
 Arthur Wellesley (1834; 2nd time)
 Robert Peel (1834–35; 1st time)
 William Lamb (1835–41; 2nd time)
 Robert Peel (1841–46; 2nd time)
 John Russell (1846–52; 1st time)
 Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1852; 1st time)
 George Hamilton-Gordon (1852–55)
 Henry John Temple (1855–58; 1st time)
 Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1858–59; 2nd time)
 Henry John Temple (1859–65; 2nd time)
 John Russell (1865–66; 2nd time)
 Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1866–68; 3rd time)
 Benjamin Disraeli (1868; 1st time)
 William Ewart Gladstone (1868–74; 1st time)
 Benjamin Disraeli (1874–80; 2nd time)
 William Ewart Gladstone (1880–85; 2nd time)
 Robert Cecil (1885–86; 1st time)
 William Ewart Gladstone (1886; 3rd time)
 Robert Cecil (1886–92; 2nd time)
 William Ewart Gladstone (1892–94; 4th time)
 Archibald Philip Primrose (1894–95)
 Robert Cecil (1895–1902; 3rd time)
 Arthur James Balfour (1902–05)
 Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1905–08)
 H.H. Asquith (1908–16)
 David Lloyd George (1916–22)
 Bonar Law (1922–23)
 Stanley Baldwin (1923–24; 1st time)
 Ramsay Macdonald (1924; 1st time)
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Stanley Baldwin (1924–29; 2nd time)
Ramsay Macdonald (1929–35; 2nd time)
Stanley Baldwin (1935–37; 3rd time)
Neville Chamberlain (1937–40)
Winston Churchill (1940–45; 1st time)
Clement Attlee (1945–51)
Winston Churchill (1951–55; 2nd time)
Anthony Eden (1955–57)
Harold Macmillan (1957–63)
Alec Douglas-Home (1963–64)
Harold Wilson (1964–70; 1st time)
Edward Heath (1970–74)
Harold Wilson (1974–76; 2nd time)
James Callaghan (1976–79)
Margaret Thatcher (1979–90)
John Major (1990–97)
Tony Blair (1997–2007)
Gordon Brown (2007–10)
David Cameron (2010–16 )
Theresa May (2016–19)
Boris Johnson (2019– )
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson is a leading Conservative politician and British Prime Minister, who was elected leader of the
Conservative Party in the summer of 2019, in a bid to take the UK out of the EU with or without a deal. He served as
Mayor of London for two terms 2008-16, overseeing the 2012 London Olympics. He also played a leading role in the
2016 “Vote Leave” campaign on the EU referendum, afterwards becoming Foreign Secretary and later Prime
Minister. He is one of Britain’s most high profile politicians, renowned for his eccentric approach to life but
increasingly known for his hardline Brexit stance which has polarised opinion. Johnson’s term has Prime Minister was
overshadowed by the coronavirus crisis. In 2021/22, details emerged that unauthorised parties had taken place in
number 10 Downing Street – when the rest of the country was in lockdown.