Historical rankings of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
The Times constructed a poll for the first time of all British prime ministers in the lead-up to the 2010 general election. Before this there were two polls in 1999 and 2000, carried out by BBC Radio 4 and the British Politics Group—both consulted only a relatively small number of experts. A wider-reaching poll was conducted in 2004 by the University of Leeds and Ipsos MORI. All rankings involved only prime ministers from the 20th and 21st centuries.
2004 Mori / University of Leeds survey
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 (PM) in terms of their success and asking them to assess the key characteristics of successful PMs.
Respondents were asked to indicate on a scale of 0 to 10 how successful or unsuccessful they considered each PM to have been in office (with 0 being highly unsuccessful and 10 highly successful). A mean of the scores could then be calculated and a league table based on the mean scores.[1]
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 Liberal PMs averaged 5.8 (median of 6.2) and the twelve Conservative PMs 4.8 (median of 4.1).
# | Prime Minister | Years in office | Party | Mean score |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Clement Attlee | 1945–1951 | Labour | 8.3 |
2 | Sir Winston Churchill | 1940–1945, 1951–1955 | Conservative | 7.9 |
3 | David Lloyd George | 1916–1922 | Liberal | 7.3 |
4 | Margaret Thatcher | 1979–1990 | Conservative | 7.1 |
5 | Harold Macmillan | 1957–1963 | Conservative | 6.5 |
6 | Tony Blair | 1997–2007[lower-alpha 1] | Labour | 6.3 |
7 | H. H. Asquith | 1908–1916 | Liberal | 6.2 |
8 | Stanley Baldwin | 1923–1924, 1924–1929, 1935–1937 | Conservative | 6.2 |
9 | Harold Wilson | 1964–1970, 1974–1976 | Labour | 5.9 |
10 | Lord Salisbury | 1895–1902 | Conservative | 5.8 |
11 | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman | 1905–1908 | Liberal | 5.0 |
12 | James Callaghan | 1976–1979 | Labour | 4.8 |
13 | Edward Heath | 1970–1974 | Conservative | 4.4 |
14 | Ramsay MacDonald | 1924, 1929–1935 | Labour | 3.7 |
15 | John Major | 1990–1997 | Conservative | 3.7 |
16 | Bonar Law | 1922–1923 | Conservative | 3.5 |
17 | Neville Chamberlain | 1937–1940 | Conservative | 3.4 |
18 | Arthur Balfour | 1902–1905 | Conservative | 3.4 |
19 | Sir Alec Douglas-Home | 1963–1964 | Conservative | 3.3 |
20 | Sir Anthony Eden | 1955–1957 | Conservative | 2.5 |
- ↑ Poll taken in 2004, while Blair was still in office.
2010 University of Leeds survey of post-war prime ministers
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.[2][3]
# | Prime Minister | Years in office | Party |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Clement Attlee | 1945–1951 | Labour |
2 | Margaret Thatcher | 1979–1990 | Conservative |
3 | Tony Blair | 1997–2007 | Labour |
4 | Harold Macmillan | 1957–1963 | Conservative |
5 | Harold Wilson | 1964–1970, 1974–1976 | Labour |
6 | Sir Winston Churchill | (1940–1945), 1951–1955 | Conservative |
7 | James Callaghan | 1976–1979 | Labour |
8 | John Major | 1990–1997 | Conservative |
9 | Edward Heath | 1970–1974 | Conservative |
10 | Gordon Brown | 2007–2010 | Labour |
11 | Sir Alec Douglas-Home | 1963–1964 | Conservative |
12 | Sir Anthony Eden | 1955–1957 | Conservative |
2013 Royal Holloway study of MPs' evaluations
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 included 69 Conservatives, 67 Labour MPs, 14 Liberal Democrats and 8 MPs from other parties.[4]
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: Tory 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.
# | Prime Minister | Years in office | Party | Mean score |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Margaret Thatcher | 1979–1990 | Conservative | 7.4 |
2 | Clement Attlee | 1945–1951 | Labour | 7.3 |
3 | Tony Blair | 1997–2007 | Labour | 6.8 |
4 | Sir Winston Churchill | 1951–1955 | Conservative | 6.5 |
5 | Harold Macmillan | 1957–1963 | Conservative | 6.1 |
6 | Harold Wilson | 1964–1970, 1974–1976 | Labour | 5.8 |
7 | John Major | 1990–1997 | Conservative | 5.3 |
8 | James Callaghan | 1976–1979 | Labour | 4.4 |
9 | Edward Heath | 1970–1974 | Conservative | 4.4 |
10 | Sir Alec Douglas-Home | 1963–1964 | Conservative | 4.0 |
11 | Sir Anthony Eden | 1955–1957 | Conservative | 3.7 |
12 | Gordon Brown | 2007–2010 | Labour | 3.3 |
2016 University of Leeds survey
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 and caretaker ministries were not in contention and he was judged purely on his second premiership.[5]
# | Prime Minister | Years in office | Party |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Clement Attlee | 1945–1951 | Labour |
2 | Margaret Thatcher | 1979–1990 | Conservative |
3 | Tony Blair | 1997–2007 | Labour |
4 | Harold Macmillan | 1957–1963 | Conservative |
5 | Harold Wilson | 1964–1970, 1974–1976 | Labour |
6 | John Major | 1990–1997 | Conservative |
7 | Sir Winston Churchill | (1940–1945), 1951–1955 | Conservative |
8 | James Callaghan | 1976–1979 | Labour |
9 | Edward Heath | 1970–1974 | Conservative |
10 | Gordon Brown | 2007–2010 | Labour |
11 | David Cameron | 2010–2016 | Conservative |
12 | Sir Alec Douglas-Home | 1963–1964 | Conservative |
13 | Sir Anthony Eden | 1955–1957 | Conservative |
Previous surveys
BBC Radio 4 poll
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.[6]
BBC History Magazine list
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.[7]
- 5: Margaret Thatcher
- 5: Clement Attlee
- 4: Winston Churchill
- 4: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
- 4: Edward Heath
- 4: Harold Macmillan
- 3: Herbert Henry Asquith
- 3: Stanley Baldwin
- 3: Tony Blair
- 3: David Lloyd George
- 3: Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil (Lord Salisbury)
- 3: James Harold Wilson
- 2: Arthur James Balfour
- 2: James Callaghan
- 1: Sir Alec Douglas-Home
- 1: Bonar Law
- 1: James Ramsay MacDonald
- 1: John Major
- 0: Neville Chamberlain
- 0: Robert Anthony Eden
Popular opinion
Newsnight poll
In September 2008 the BBC Newsnight programme conducted an online poll. Asking voters to decide who they thought was the greatest and worst of post-war prime ministers. 27,000 people responded, and decided that Winston Churchill was the greatest, with Attlee second.[8]
The full results were:
Other polls
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 (though not featured in contemporary polls as he was a 19th-century politician), Margaret Thatcher was in 16th place, Tony Blair was 67th and David Lloyd George was 79th.[9]
The BBC television programme The Daily Politics asked viewers in 2007 to select their favourite Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher topped the list with 49% of the vote, with Clement Attlee coming second with 32%.[10]
Order | Name | Party | Term of office | The Times overall[11] | Parris[12] | Riddell[13] | MacIntyre[14] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Robert Walpole | Whig | 1721–1742 | 09 | 14 | 16 | 07 |
2 | 2 | Earl of Wilmington | Whig | 1742–1743 | 50 | 51 | 42 | |
3 | 3 | Henry Pelham | Whig | 1743–1754 | 29 | 19 | 34 | 20 |
4 | 4 6 | Duke of Newcastle | Whig | 1754–1756 1757–1762 | 41 | 40 | 32 | 41 |
5 | 5 | Duke of Devonshire | Whig | 1756–1757 | 44 | 35 | 44 | 47 |
6 | 7 | Earl of Bute | Tory | 1762–1763 | 46 | 44 | 49 | 40 |
7 | 8 | George Grenville | Whig | 1763–1765 | 48 | 51 | 48 | 39 |
8 | 9 13 | Marquess of Rockingham | Whig | 1765–1766 1782 | 32 | 30 | 42 | 38 |
9 | 10 | William Pitt the Elder | Whig | 1766–1768 | 16 | 25 | 14 | 18 |
10 | 11 | Duke of Grafton | Whig | 1768–1770 | 49 | 42 | 50 | 49 |
11 | 12 | Lord North | Tory | 1770–1782 | 50 | 49 | 37 | 44 |
12 | 14 | Earl of Shelburne | Whig | 1782–1783 | 26 | 29 | 41 | 05 |
13 | 15 20 | Duke of Portland | Whig Tory | 1783 1807–1809 | 39 | 27 | 43 | 37 |
14 | 16 18 | William Pitt the Younger | Tory | 1783–1801 1804–1806 | 04 | 12 | 05 | 03 |
15 | 17 | Henry Addington | Tory | 1801–1804 | 39 | 36 | 39 | 36 |
16 | 19 | Baron Grenville | Whig | 1806–1807 | 43 | 39 | 40 | 35 |
17 | 21 | Spencer Perceval | Tory | 1809–1812 | 36 | 38 | 47 | 33 |
18 | 22 | Earl of Liverpool | Tory | 1812–1827 | 19 | 22 | 22 | 15 |
19 | 23 | George Canning | Tory | 1827 | 31 | 08 | 36 | 23 |
20 | 24 | Viscount Goderich | Tory | 1827–1828 | 37 | 52 | 51 | |
21 | 25 28 | Duke of Wellington | Tory | 1828–1830 1834 | 24 | 18 | 30 | 17 |
22 | 26 | Earl Grey | Whig | 1830–1834 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 06 |
23 | 27 30 | Viscount Melbourne | Whig | 1834 1835–1841 | 25 | 26 | 21 | 32 |
24 | 29 31 | Robert Peel | Conservative | 1834–1835 1841–1846 | 06 | 06 | 08 | 08 |
25 | 32 38 | Lord John Russell | Whig Liberal | 1846–1852 | 21 | 15 | 29 | 14 |
26 | 33 36 39 | Earl of Derby | Conservative | 1852 1858–1859 1866–1868 | 18 | 23 | 19 | 16 |
27 | 34 | Earl of Aberdeen | Peelite | 1852–1855 | 42 | 41 | 31 | 43 |
28 | 35 37 | Viscount Palmerston | Whig Liberal | 1855–1858 1859–1865 | 13 | 11 | 20 | 11 |
29 | 40 42 | Benjamin Disraeli | Conservative | 1868 1874–1880 | 10 | 07 | 06 | 09 |
30 | 41 43 45 47 | William Ewart Gladstone | Liberal | 1868–1874 1880–1885 1886 1892–1894 | 03 | 04 | 02 | 04 |
31 | 44 46 49 | Marquess of Salisbury | Conservative | 1885–1886 1886–1892 1895–1902 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 25 |
32 | 48 | Earl of Rosebery | Liberal | 1894–1895 | 45 | 46 | 46 | 50 |
33 | 50 | Arthur Balfour | Conservative | 1902–1905 | 30 | 28 | 38 | 31 |
34 | 51 | Henry Campbell-Bannerman | Liberal | 1905–1908 | 22 | 24 | 26 | 30 |
35 | 52 | H. H. Asquith | Liberal | 1908–1916 | 11 | 21 | 09 | 26 |
36 | 53 | David Lloyd George | Liberal | 1916–1922 | 02 | 02 | 03 | 02 |
37 | 54 | Bonar Law | Conservative | 1922–1923 | 34 | 47 | 35 | 24 |
38 | 55 57 59 | Stanley Baldwin | Conservative | 1923–1924 1924–1929 1935–1937 | 14 | 20 | 11 | 13 |
39 | 56 58 | Ramsay MacDonald | Labour National Labour | 1924 1929–1935 | 33 | 48 | 33 | 29 |
40 | 60 | Neville Chamberlain | Conservative | 1937–1940 | 35 | 45 | 28 | 52 |
41 | 61 63 | Winston Churchill | Conservative | 1940–1945 1951–1955 | 01 | 01 | 01 | 01 |
42 | 62 | Clement Attlee | Labour | 1945–1951 | 07 | 05 | 07 | 22 |
43 | 64 | Anthony Eden | Conservative | 1955–1957 | 47 | 43 | 45 | 48 |
44 | 65 | Harold Macmillan | Conservative | 1957–1963 | 15 | 17 | 13 | 21 |
45 | 66 | Alec Douglas-Home | Conservative | 1963–1964 | 36 | 32 | 27 | 34 |
46 | 67 69 | Harold Wilson | Labour | 1964–1970 1974–1976 | 20 | 33 | 17 | 19 |
47 | 68 | Edward Heath | Conservative | 1970–1974 | 23 | 13 | 18 | 46 |
48 | 70 | James Callaghan | Labour | 1976–1979 | 27 | 31 | 24 | 27 |
49 | 71 | Margaret Thatcher | Conservative | 1979–1990 | 05 | 03 | 04 | 10 |
50 | 72 | John Major | Conservative | 1990–1997 | 28 | 16 | 23 | 28 |
51 | 73 | Tony Blair | Labour | 1997–2007 | 16 | 34 | 15 | 12 |
52 | 74 | Gordon Brown | Labour | 2007–2010 | 36 | 52 | 25 | 45 |
53 | 75 | David Cameron | Conservative | 2010–2016 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
54 | 76 | Theresa May | Conservative | 2016– | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
See also
- Historical rankings of Canadian prime ministers
- Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States
- Historical rankings of Prime Ministers of Australia
- Historical rankings of Prime Ministers of the Netherlands
- Historical rankings of Chancellors of Germany
- 100 Greatest Britons
- List of current heads of government in the United Kingdom and dependencies
References
- ↑ Rating British Prime Ministers, Ipsos MORI, retrieved 24 November 2015
- ↑ Academics rate Brown one of the worst post 1945 PMs, University of Leeds, retrieved 9 January 2011
- ↑ "Gordon Brown 'third worst PM since 1945', poll of historians finds", The Daily Telegraph, 3 August 2010, retrieved 9 January 2011
- ↑ "The prime ministerial ratings game: a parliamentary perspective", Politics Blog, 5 May 2015, retrieved 27 September 2016
- ↑ "David Cameron rated third worst Prime Minister since end of World War Two", The Independent, 12 October 2016, retrieved 18 December 2016
- ↑ "Churchill, 'Greatest' PM of 20th Century", BBC Politics, 4 January 2000
- ↑ Thatcher and Attlee top PM list, BBC News, 29 August 2006
- ↑ BBC Newsnight poll, BBC News, 1 October 2008, retrieved 23 July 2016
- ↑ "100 Great Britons", BBC History, archived from the original on 14 May 2006, retrieved 23 May 2007
- ↑ Your Favourite Prime Minister, 13 June 2007
- ↑ "The Times's Top 50 Prime Ministers", timesonline.co.uk, retrieved 23 July 2016, (Subscription required (help))
- ↑ "Matthew Parris: my top 50 Prime Ministers", timesonline.co.uk, retrieved 23 July 2016, (Subscription required (help))
- ↑ "Peter Riddell: my top 50 Prime Ministers", timesonline.co.uk, retrieved 23 July 2016, (Subscription required (help))
- ↑ "Ben Macintyre: My top 50 Prime Ministers", timesonline.co.uk, retrieved 23 July 2016, (Subscription required (help))
Further reading
- Buller, Jim; James, Toby S. (2012), "Statecraft and the Assessment of National Political Leaders: The Case of New Labour and Tony Blair", British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 14 (4): 534–555
- Kaarbo, Juliet; Hermann, Margaret G. (1998), "Leadership styles of prime ministers: How individual differences affect the foreign policymaking process", The Leadership Quarterly, 9 (3): 243–263
- Royal Holloway Group (2015), "British MPs on British PMs: Parliamentary Evaluations of Prime Ministerial Success", Politics, 35 (2): 111–127, PR3710
- Strangio, Paul; et al. (2013), Understanding Prime-Ministerial Performance: Comparative Perspectives, Oxford UP, pp. 224, 226, ISBN 978-0-19-966642-3
- Theakston, Kevin; Gill, Mark (2006), "Rating 20th‐Century British Prime Ministers", British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 8 (2): 193–213
- Theakston, Kevin; Gill, Mark (2011), "The postwar premiership league" (PDF), Political Quarterly, 82 (1): 67–80
External links
- The British Politics Group, 7 July 2000, archived from the original on 16 August 2000