Britons of today might be getting accustomed to their prime ministers resigning, but it’s anything but normal.
The United Kingdom has had seven prime ministers since 2016, compared with just three from 2000 to 2015. By further comparison, Larry the cat, who has lived and served at 10 Downing St. since 2011, has now served with seven prime ministers.
The amount of turnover in the U.K. exceeds that of any of the leading industrialized countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
Italy and Japan closely follow the U.K. with five new prime ministers since 2016. However, the comparison is not entirely apples to apples. Scholars say Brexit ignited a shift in British politics: Voters are quicker to change parties, which make prime ministers more expendable. That is in contrast to other democracies that have long traditions of rapid leadership change, such as Italy and Japan.
Italy’s government often produces short-lived leaderships. While Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s current prime minister, has been in office since 2022, she leads the 68th government since Italy became a republic about 80 years ago. In Japan, the last 10 years have seen fewer leaders than the 10 years that preceded them. From 2006 to 2012, Japan had a new prime minister every year.
Canada and France stand in sharp contrast to the U.K. Justin Trudeau was prime minister for nearly a decade, and Emmanuel Macron is in his ninth year as president. Germany has had three chancellors since 2016. They include Angela Merkel, one of the longest-serving European leaders since the turn of the century, who held office from 2005 to 2021.
In the U.S., leadership turnover has manifested at the ballot box rather than through resignations. Voters have rejected the incumbent party, in the Electoral College outcome and the popular vote, in the past two presidential elections. In 2020, Donald Trump became the first incumbent president to lose re-election since George. H.W. Bush in 1992.
Keir Starmer’s tenure was brief, but he outlasted his two immediate predecessors — Rishi Sunak, by 121 days, and Elizabeth Truss, by 691 days.
