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The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government in the United Kingdom. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers, and advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the Royal Prerogative. As modern prime ministers hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons, they typically sit as a Member of Parliament and lead the largest party or a coalition in the House of Commons.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state with devolution that is governed within the framework of a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Boris Johnson, is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the British government, on behalf of and by the consent of the monarch, and the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and the Northern Ireland Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The highest court is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, also referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, third in the ministerial ranking.
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (DPM) is an office sometimes held by a minister in the Government of the United Kingdom.
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is a group of the most senior ministers of the Crown in the government of the United Kingdom. A committee of the Privy Council, it is chaired by the prime minister and its members include secretaries of state and other political leaders of government departments.
The Secretary of State for Justice, also referred to as the Justice Secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, sixth in the ministerial ranking. Since the office's inception, the incumbent has concurrently been appointed Lord Chancellor.
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as age and citizenship. The legitimate children of a life peer are entitled to style themselves with the prefix "The Honourable", although they cannot inherit the peerage itself.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office is a position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The Minister is responsible for all Cabinet Office policies and leading the department.
The article lists the records of prime ministers of the United Kingdom since 1721.
The principal private secretary to the prime minister of the United Kingdom is a senior official in the United Kingdom Civil Service who acts as principal private secretary to the prime minister of the United Kingdom. The holder of this office is traditionally the head of the Prime Minister's Office in 10 Downing Street. In the Civil Service, the role is currently graded as director general.
The Downing Street chief of staff is the most senior political appointee in the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, acting as a senior aide to the prime minister, a powerful, non-ministerial position within Her Majesty's Government.
A term of office is the length of time a person serves in a particular elected office. In many jurisdictions there is a defined limit on how long terms of office may be before the officeholder must be subject to re-election. Some jurisdictions exercise term limits, setting a maximum number of terms an individual may hold in a particular office.
The Liaison Committee is a committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. The committee consists of the chairs of the 32 Commons select committees and the chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
This is a chronological list of all those who served as British prime minister and were still living at different periods in history. Currently, there are six living prime ministers: John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
The Secretary of State for International Trade, also referred to as the International Trade Secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Department for International Trade and UK Export Finance. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, 11th in the ministerial ranking. Since the office's inception, the incumbent has concurrently been appointed President of the Board of Trade.
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, also referred to as the Business Secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, tenth in the ministerial ranking.
On 28 August 2019, the Parliament of the United Kingdom was ordered to be prorogued by Queen Elizabeth II upon the advice of the Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson, advice later ruled to be unlawful. The prorogation, or suspension, of Parliament was to be effective from between 9 and 12 September 2019 and last until the State Opening of Parliament on 14 October 2019; in the event, Parliament was suspended between 10 September and 24 September. Since Parliament was to be prorogued for five weeks and reconvene just 17 days before the United Kingdom's scheduled departure from the European Union on 31 October 2019, the move was seen by many opposition politicians and political commentators as a controversial and unconstitutional attempt by the prime minister to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of the Government's Brexit plans in those final weeks leading up to Brexit. Johnson and his Government defended the prorogation of Parliament as a routine political process that ordinarily follows the selection of a new prime minister and would allow the Government to refocus on a legislative agenda.
Boris Johnson carried out the first significant reshuffle of his majority government on 13 February 2020. Following the December 2019 general election, there was considerable speculation that Johnson was planning a major reshuffle of the Cabinet, to take place after the United Kingdom's official withdrawal from the European Union on 31 January 2020. There were reports that up to a third of the Cabinet would be dismissed, Whitehall departments abolished and civil servants replaced by policy experts. The anticipated reshuffle was nicknamed "The St Valentine's Day Massacre" in the press, due to its proximity to St Valentine's Day, the name being a reference to the 1929 gangland shooting in Chicago.