Winston Churchill is generally considered one of the greatest prime ministers for his leadership during the Second World War.
Clement Attlee, who served as Labour Leader for over 20 years, is almost always very highly rated among prime ministers.
Britain's longest serving Prime Minister in the 20th century and first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is generally rated highly, despite being a divisive figure.
Anthony Eden has not fared well in popular opinion polls and historical rankings of 20th-century prime ministers.

Academics, Members of Parliament, the general public and journalists alike have attempted to rank prime ministers of the United Kingdom and prime ministers of Great Britain. 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.

Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair generally appear toward the top of rankings, while Anthony Eden generally appears at the bottom.

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.[1]

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.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4][5]

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.[6]

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.[7][8]

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

Key:

  •   blue background indicates a rank within the first quartile of its respective ranking
  •   green background indicates a rank within the second quartile of its respective ranking
  •   yellow background indicates a rank within the third quartile of its respective ranking
  •   orange background indicates a rank within the fourth quartile of its respective ranking
  •   yellow-green background indicates a median which does not fall into any quartile, used when the total number of figures ranked is not a multiple of four
Rankings of prime ministers by academics
Prime Minister Party Tenure
BBC Radio 4 1999[1]
University of Leeds/Ipsos Mori 2004[2]
University of Leeds 2010[5]
University of Leeds 2016[6]
University of Leeds 2021[8]
The Marquess of SalisburyConservative1885–1886
1886–1892
1895–1902		 07[lower-alpha 1] 10[lower-alpha 1] 03[lower-alpha 1] – – –
Arthur BalfourConservative1902–1905 16 18 04 – – –
Henry Campbell-BannermanLiberal1905–1908 09 11 02 – – –
H. H. AsquithLiberal1908–1916 04 07 03 – – –
David Lloyd GeorgeLiberal1916–1922 02 03 03 – – –
Bonar LawConservative1922–1923 13 16 05 – – –
Stanley BaldwinConservative1923–1924
1924–1929
1935–1937		 08 08 03 – – –
Ramsay MacDonaldLabour
National Labour		1924
1929–1935		 14 14 05 – – –
Neville ChamberlainConservative1937–1940 18 17 06 – – –
Winston ChurchillConservative1940–1945
1951–1955		 01 02 02 06[lower-alpha 2] 07[lower-alpha 2] 07=[lower-alpha 2]
Clement AttleeLabour1945–1951 03 01 01 01 01 01
Anthony EdenConservative1955–1957 19 20 06 12 13 13=
Harold MacmillanConservative1957–1963 06 05 02 04 04 05
Alec Douglas-HomeConservative1963–1964 15 19 05 11 12 12
Harold WilsonLabour1964–1970
1974–1976		 10 09 03 05 05 04
Edward HeathConservative1970–1974 11 13 02 09 09 10
James CallaghanLabour1976–1979 12 12 04 07 08 07=
Margaret ThatcherConservative1979–1990 05 04 01 02 02 02
John MajorConservative1990–1997 17 15 05 08 06 07=
Tony BlairLabour1997–2007 – 06 [lower-alpha 3] 03[lower-alpha 3] 03 03 03
Gordon BrownLabour2007–2010 – – – 10 10 06
David CameronConservative2010–2016 – – – – 11 11
Theresa MayConservative2016–2019 – – – – – 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.[9]

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.

Key:

  •   blue background indicates a rank within the first quartile of its respective ranking
  •   green background indicates a rank within the second quartile of its respective ranking
  •   yellow background indicates a rank within the third quartile of its respective ranking
  •   orange background indicates a rank within the fourth quartile of its respective ranking
  •   yellow-green background indicates a median which does not fall into any quartile, used when the total number of figures ranked is not a multiple of four
Rankings of prime ministers by Members of Parliament
Prime Minister Party Tenure
2013[9]
Winston Churchill Conservative (1940–1945)
1951–1955		 04[lower-alpha 2]
Clement Attlee Labour 1945–1951 02
Anthony Eden Conservative 1955–1957 11
Harold Macmillan Conservative 1957–1963 05
Alec Douglas-Home Conservative 1963–1964 10
Harold Wilson Labour 1964–1970
1974–1976		 06
Edward Heath Conservative 1970–1974 09
James Callaghan Labour 1976–1979 08
Margaret Thatcher Conservative 1979–1990 01
John Major Conservative 1990–1997 07
Tony Blair Labour 1997–2007 03
Gordon Brown Labour 2007–2010 12

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).[10] In 2008, BBC Newsnight held a poll of 27,000 people, to decide the UK's greatest and worst post-war prime minister.[11]

Key:

  •   blue background indicates a rank within the first quartile of its respective ranking
  •   green background indicates a rank within the second quartile of its respective ranking
  •   yellow background indicates a rank within the third quartile of its respective ranking
  •   orange background indicates a rank within the fourth quartile of its respective ranking
  •   yellow-green background indicates a median which does not fall into any quartile, used when the total number of figures ranked is not a multiple of four
Rankings of prime ministers by the general public
Prime Minister Party Tenure
BBC The Daily Politics 2007[10]
BBC Newsnight 2008[11]
Winston Churchill Conservative (1940–1945)
1951–1955		 – 01[lower-alpha 2]
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[lower-alpha 3] 06
Gordon Brown Labour 2007–2010 – 12[lower-alpha 3]

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.[12]

Journalistic opinion

Both The Times[13] and Iain Dale[14] have specifically ranked all (or almost all) prime ministers of the United Kingdom and prime ministers of Great Britain.

Key:

  •   blue background indicates a rank within the first quartile of its respective ranking
  •   green background indicates a rank within the second quartile of its respective ranking
  •   yellow background indicates a rank within the third quartile of its respective ranking
  •   orange background indicates a rank within the fourth quartile of its respective ranking
  •   yellow-green background indicates a median which does not fall into any quartile, used when the total number of figures ranked is not a multiple of four
Rankings of prime ministers by journalists
Prime Minister Party Tenure
Robert WalpoleWhig1721–17420914160710
Earl of WilmingtonWhig1742–1743 –50514252
Henry PelhamWhig1743–17542919342019
Duke of NewcastleWhig1754–1756
1757–1762		4140324122
Duke of DevonshireWhig1756–17574435444753
Earl of ButeTory1762–17634644494042
George GrenvilleWhig1763–17654851483944
Marquess of RockinghamWhig1765–1766
1782		3230423827
William Pitt the ElderWhig1766–17681625141825
Duke of GraftonWhig1768–17704942504938
Lord NorthTory1770–17825049374440
Earl of ShelburneWhig1782–17832629410541
Duke of PortlandWhig
Tory		1783
1807–1809		3927433743
William Pitt the YoungerTory1783–1801
1804–1806		0412050303
Henry AddingtonTory1801–18043936393626
Baron GrenvilleWhig1806–18074339403536
Spencer PercevalTory1809–18123638473337
Earl of LiverpoolTory1812–18271922221520
George CanningTory18273108362354
Viscount GoderichTory1827–1828 –37525155
Duke of WellingtonTory1828–1830
1834		2418301733
Earl GreyWhig1830–18340809100613
Viscount MelbourneWhig1834
1835–1841		2526213224
Robert PeelConservative1834–1835
1841–1846		0606080812
Lord John RussellWhig
Liberal		1846–1852
1865–1866		2115291418
Earl of DerbyConservative1852
1858–1859
1866–1868		1823191616
Earl of AberdeenPeelite1852–18554241314339
Viscount PalmerstonWhig
Liberal		1855–1858
1859–1865		1311201117
Benjamin DisraeliConservative1868
1874–1880		1007060908
William Ewart GladstoneLiberal1868–1874
1880–1885
1886
1892–1894		0304020402
Marquess of SalisburyConservative1885–1886
1886–1892
1895–1902		1110122509
Earl of RoseberyLiberal1894–18954546465046
Arthur BalfourConservative1902–19053028383131
Henry Campbell-BannermanLiberal1905–19082224263023
H. H. AsquithLiberal1908–19161121092607
David Lloyd GeorgeLiberal1916–19220202030206
Bonar LawConservative1922–19233447352449
Stanley BaldwinConservative1923–1924
1924–1929
1935–1937		1420111311
Ramsay MacDonaldLabour
National Labour		1924
1929–1935		3348332930
Neville ChamberlainConservative1937–19403545285247
Winston ChurchillConservative1940–1945
1951–1955		0101010101
Clement AttleeLabour1945–19510705072205
Anthony EdenConservative1955–19574743454851
Harold MacmillanConservative1957–19631517132121
Alec Douglas-HomeConservative1963–19643632273448
Harold WilsonLabour1964–1970
1974–1976		2033171915
Edward HeathConservative1970–19742313184635
James CallaghanLabour1976–19792731242734
Margaret ThatcherConservative1979–19900503041004
John MajorConservative1990–19972816232828
Tony BlairLabour1997–20071634151214
Gordon BrownLabour2007–201036[lower-alpha 4]52 [lower-alpha 4]25 [lower-alpha 4]45 [lower-alpha 4]32
David CameronConservative2010–2016 – – – –29
Theresa MayConservative2016–2019 – – – –50
Boris JohnsonConservative2019–2022 – – – –45 [lower-alpha 3]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 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.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ranking only covers Winston Churchill's premiership between 1951 and 1955, not between 1940 and 1945.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Ranking completed while the Prime Minister was in office.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Ranking may have been completed while the Prime Minister was in office.

References

  1. 1 2 "Churchill, 'Greatest' PM of 20th Century", BBC Politics, 4 January 2000, archived from the original on 29 October 2005, retrieved 23 May 2007
  2. 1 2 Rating British Prime Ministers, Ipsos MORI, archived from the original on 25 November 2015, retrieved 24 November 2015
  3. 1 2 Thatcher and Attlee top PM list, BBC News, 29 August 2006, archived from the original on 14 July 2007, retrieved 24 September 2007
  4. ↑ Academics rate Brown one of the worst post 1945 PMs, University of Leeds, archived from the original on 4 November 2010, retrieved 9 January 2011
  5. 1 2 "Gordon Brown 'third worst PM since 1945', poll of historians finds", The Daily Telegraph, 3 August 2010, archived from the original on 6 August 2010, retrieved 9 January 2011
  6. 1 2 "David Cameron rated third worst Prime Minister since end of World War Two", The Independent, 12 October 2016, archived from the original on 20 December 2016, retrieved 18 December 2016
  7. ↑ "Professor Kevin Theakston co-authors article ranking post-war Prime Ministers". University of Leeds. 7 July 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  8. 1 2 "Theresa May joint worst post-war prime minister, say historians and politics professors in new survey", The Conversation, 6 July 2021
  9. 1 2 "The prime ministerial ratings game: a parliamentary perspective", Politics Blog, 5 May 2015, archived from the original on 6 October 2016, retrieved 27 September 2016
  10. 1 2 Your Favourite Prime Minister, 13 June 2007, archived from the original on 11 September 2007, retrieved 8 August 2021
  11. 1 2 BBC Newsnight poll, BBC News, 1 October 2008, archived from the original on 4 October 2008, retrieved 8 August 2021
  12. ↑ "100 Great Britons", BBC History, archived from the original on 14 May 2006, retrieved 23 May 2007
  13. 1 2 "The Times's Top 50 Prime Ministers", timesonline.co.uk, retrieved 23 July 2016
  14. 1 2 Dale, Iain (12 November 2020). "Ranking 55 Prime Ministers". Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  15. ↑ "Matthew Parris: my top 50 Prime Ministers", timesonline.co.uk, retrieved 23 July 2016
  16. ↑ "Peter Riddell: my top 50 Prime Ministers", timesonline.co.uk, retrieved 23 July 2016
  17. ↑ "Ben Macintyre: My top 50 Prime Ministers", timesonline.co.uk, retrieved 23 July 2016

Further reading

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