If you’re looking for a list of prime ministers of England, I have some news that might be a bit of a shock. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing.
England hasn't had its own Prime Minister since 1707. That’s because, technically, the role belongs to the United Kingdom as a whole. People use the terms interchangeably all the time, but if you said "Prime Minister of England" in a room full of historians, you’d probably get a few winces. Honestly, it's one of those "well, actually" facts that makes you sound like a genius at pub quizzes.
As we sit here in early 2026, the person currently holding the keys to 10 Downing Street is Sir Keir Starmer. He took over in July 2024 after a massive landslide victory for the Labour Party. He’s the 58th person to hold the job if you start the count with Sir Robert Walpole back in 1721.
The "First" Prime Minister and the 1721 Shift
Most people agree that the list of prime ministers of England (or Great Britain, to be accurate) starts with Sir Robert Walpole. But here’s the kicker: he didn’t even have the title. Back then, "Prime Minister" was actually an insult. It was a way of calling someone a "teacher's pet" to the King.
Walpole was officially the First Lord of the Treasury. He stayed in power for a staggering 20 years. Imagine that today! We’ve had five Prime Ministers in the last decade alone, yet Walpole just sat there from 1721 to 1742.
He didn't live in 10 Downing Street at first because it wasn't a "thing" yet. King George II eventually offered him the house as a gift. Walpole, being a savvy politician, didn't accept it for himself. He accepted it for the office of the First Lord of the Treasury. That’s why the PM lives there today.
The Early Heavyweights
After Walpole, the 18th century was a bit of a revolving door. You had guys like the Duke of Newcastle and William Pitt the Elder. Pitt was a rockstar of his time. He’s the guy who basically built the British Empire during the Seven Years' War.
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Then came his son, William Pitt the Younger. Talk about overachieving. This guy became Prime Minister at 24 years old. Most of us at 24 are still trying to figure out how to fold a fitted sheet, and he was running a global superpower and fighting Napoleon.
The 19th Century: Dueling and Drama
The 1800s were wild. The list of prime ministers of England during this era reads like a soap opera script.
Take the Duke of Wellington. Yes, the guy who beat Napoleon at Waterloo. He became Prime Minister in 1828. He wasn't very good at it, to be fair. He was used to giving orders and having soldiers obey, but Parliament doesn't really work like that. He once even fought a duel with the Earl of Winchilsea while he was still in office! They met at Battersea Fields, both fired wide (probably on purpose), and then went home.
Then you had the legendary rivalry between Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. They hated each other. Like, genuinely detested one another.
- Disraeli was the charming, witty Conservative who was Queen Victoria’s favorite.
- Gladstone was the stern, religious Liberal who Victoria couldn't stand.
Gladstone served as PM four different times. He was still taking the job in his 80s. The man was a machine.
The Modern Era: From Churchill to Starmer
When people search for a list of prime ministers of England, they’re usually looking for the big names from the 20th century.
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Winston Churchill is the obvious one. But did you know he lost the election immediately after winning World War II? The British public is famously unsentimental. They wanted a welfare state and a health service, so they voted in Clement Attlee.
Attlee is often ranked by historians as one of the greatest PMs ever, even though he had the personality of a damp cloth compared to Churchill. He’s the reason the NHS exists.
Recent Turbulence
The last few years have been... a lot.
Since 2016, the turnover at Downing Street has been dizzying. We went from David Cameron (who resigned after the Brexit vote) to Theresa May, then the chaotic era of Boris Johnson.
Then came the Liz Truss experiment. She lasted 49 days. To put that in perspective, a head of lettuce has a longer shelf life. She is officially the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history.
Rishi Sunak followed her, becoming the first British-Asian PM and the wealthiest person to ever hold the office. He tried to steady the ship, but by the time the 2024 election rolled around, the country was ready for a change.
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Where we are in 2026
Right now, Keir Starmer is navigating the mid-term slump. His government has been focused on "growth, growth, growth," which sounds like a corporate mantra but is actually a desperate attempt to fix the UK's stagnating economy.
The list of prime ministers of England (fine, the UK) is a list of survivors. Some changed the world, some changed the tax code, and some just tried not to get fired before their first month was up.
A Quick Cheat Sheet of Recent PMs
If you're trying to keep them straight in your head, here's a quick rundown of the 21st-century leaders:
- Tony Blair (1997-2007): The "New Labour" architect.
- Gordon Brown (2007-2010): The guy who had to deal with the 2008 bank crash.
- David Cameron (2010-2016): Led a coalition, called the Brexit referendum, and left.
- Theresa May (2016-2019): Spent three years trying to make "Brexit mean Brexit."
- Boris Johnson (2019-2022): Won big, did Brexit, then got sunk by "Partygate."
- Liz Truss (2022): 49 days of economic chaos.
- Rishi Sunak (2022-2024): The technocrat who tried to clean up the mess.
- Keir Starmer (2024-Present): The current guy in the hot seat.
Why the "England" thing still confuses everyone
It's because England doesn't have its own parliament. Scotland has Holyrood. Wales has the Senedd. Northern Ireland has Stormont. But England? England just has Westminster, which is also the UK parliament.
So, when the UK Prime Minister makes a law about schools or hospitals—which are "devolved" issues in the other countries—they are effectively acting as the Prime Minister of England. It’s messy. It’s confusing. It’s very British.
If you want to dive deeper into the history, your best bet is to look at the official Gov.uk archives or the National Portrait Gallery. They have incredible records of everyone from Walpole to Starmer.
If you're visiting London, walk past the gates of Downing Street. You can't get close to the door anymore—security has been tight since the 80s—but you can feel the weight of all that history behind the black iron bars. Every name on that list of prime ministers of England has walked through that door, usually with a look of immense stress on their face.
To get a real sense of how the power shifted over time, check out the biographies of Robert Walpole and William Pitt the Younger. They represent the "start" of the modern era and show how a job that didn't technically exist became the most powerful position in the country.