Fifty-odd people have held the job and the shortlist barely moves. Reformers, war leaders, and one who beat Napoleon before he ever took office.
1Clement AttleeBeat Churchill in 1945 and built the NHS, the welfare state and a nationalised industrial base.1000pts
2Winston ChurchillPrime minister twice, 1940–45 and 1951–55, and the only one to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.750pts
3Earl GreyCarried the 1832 Reform Act and abolition of slavery in the British Empire — and got a tea named after him.591pts
4William GladstoneLiberal giant who held the office four separate times across three decades.577pts
5Robert PeelFounded the modern police force and split his own party to repeal the Corn Laws.577pts
6Harold WilsonWon four elections, founded the Open University and kept Britain out of Vietnam.577pts
7Margaret ThatcherBritain's first woman prime minister and its longest-serving of the 20th century.500pts
8David Lloyd GeorgeRan Britain through the last two years of the First World War and introduced the old-age pension.500pts
9Robert WalpoleGenerally counted the first prime minister, and still the longest-serving at nearly 21 years.300pts
10Harold MacmillanPresided over the late-1950s boom and told voters they had never had it so good.300pts
11Tony BlairWon three consecutive general elections, a Labour record, before Iraq redefined his reputation.0pts
12The Younger PittPrime minister at 24 and for nineteen years, through the wars with revolutionary France.0pts
13Benjamin DisraeliNovelist turned premier who bought into the Suez Canal and made Victoria Empress of India.0pts
14Duke of WellingtonThe only prime minister who had already beaten Napoleon before taking the job.0pts
Comments 1
Robert Walpole is still the longest-serving at nearly twenty-one years, and the wartime deputy who won in 1945 built the NHS: https://youpick.best/articles/winston-churchill-ranked-many-ways
YP
ypb-teamAug 21
