Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of the Government of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister is usually elected by a General Election which takes place every 5 years, although sometimes the job can be given to someone else part way between elections, usually this happens for example, if the current Prime Minister resigns. In this case, it's up to the members of the political party to which they belong, to select who they want to take over. Whoever leads the political party in power, automatically becomes the Prime Minister (although The Queen still has to give her formal permission for them to take up the job.)

The current prime minister is Liz Truss who took over from Boris Johnson after she gave up the job and leadership of the Conservatives. He won a vote among party members against the MP Jeremy Hunt, beating him by over 45,000 votes.

The first officially recognized Prime Minister of the UK is Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1905-1908), but the first to call themselves Prime Minister as part of their work was Benjamin Disraeli in 1878. The longest serving Prime Minister was Margaret Thatcher, who held office for 11 successive years from 1979 to 1990.

The official residence of the Prime Minister is 10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA. It has been used officially since 1735.