How long have the Tories been in power? Conservative Prime Ministers since Labour lost - from Truss to Johnson

There have been three Conservative Prime Ministers in the last four years - could Truss be the last?
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With Conservative Party rebellion once again rearing its head, just months after a wave of mass resignations ousted the last PM, the future of the Prime Minister is again in doubt.

Framed by financial chaos caused by her and her Chancellor’s mini-budget, the past month has been a rollercoaster for Liz Truss to say the least. The economic trouble caused by her policies has led to rumours of a building revolt and overall unhappiness within her party, cutting her ‘honeymoon’ period short.

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Her authority has been weakened by U-turns on key tax policies, with the latest 180 on corporation tax coming shortly after she requested Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng stand down from his post, leaving her in an even more precarious position.

In many people’s eyes, Truss is an unelected Prime Minister. She was elected to the position of Conservative leader by members of the party, but with those only numbering around the 172,000 mark - of which, just over 80,000 voted for Truss over rival rishi Sunak - that hardly represents an outpouring of public support.

Calls for a General Election were loud even before Truss’ statement, and seem to get more pronounced with each passing day and each new wrinkle in the Prime Minister’s - possibly short-lived - reign.

But how long have the Tories been in power at this point, and how many Prime Ministers have we seen in that time? Here is everything you need to know.

How long have the Conservative Party been in power?

David Cameron welcomes Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to Downing Street for their first day of coalition government on 12 May 2010 (Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)David Cameron welcomes Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to Downing Street for their first day of coalition government on 12 May 2010 (Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
David Cameron welcomes Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to Downing Street for their first day of coalition government on 12 May 2010 (Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
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The Conservative Party of the United Kingdom has been in power for 12 years.

They came to power on 11 May 2010, following that year’s general election a few days earlier. In that vote, then Conservative Party leader David Cameron won the most votes and seats, but still fell 20 seats short of securing an all important majority in the House of Commons.

That meant a hung parliament, where no party was able to command the House, only the second time an election had delivered a result of this kind since the Second World War.

A hung parliament had been widely predicted in the run-up to the election, so politicians were more prepared for the constitutional procedures that would ensue, and coalition talks between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats began immediately.

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There was also an attempt made to form a Labour/Liberal Democrat alliance, but this ultimately failed, and realising that a deal between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats was inevitable, Labour’s Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister.

This brought to an end 13 years of the Labour Party at the head of government, and allowed the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition to take power, with Cameron at the helm as Prime Minister.

How many Prime Ministers have there been in that time?

Clockwise from top left: David Cameron, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, and Theresa May have all served as PM over the last 12 years (Photos: Getty Images)Clockwise from top left: David Cameron, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, and Theresa May have all served as PM over the last 12 years (Photos: Getty Images)
Clockwise from top left: David Cameron, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, and Theresa May have all served as PM over the last 12 years (Photos: Getty Images)

In the time that the Conservative Party has been in power, the UK has seen a total of four different Prime Ministers.

That works out to a new Prime Minister on average every three years, although the churn of leaders has picked up considerably in the latter stages of those 12 years.

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That has meant the last few have seen numerous changes of leadership; in the past four years alone, Britain has seen three Prime Ministers reside within 10 Downing Street.

Theresa May succeeded David Cameron in 2016, when he resigned following the victory of the Leave campaign in the Brexit vote.

On announcing the referendum, Cameron stated that he would be campaigning in support of remaining within a “reformed EU”. When the results were in - results that his government had failed to plan for - it was clear his time was up.

May resigned after three years in office in 2019. She had narrowly avoided being ousted through a vote of no confidence six months earlier, and went on to be defeated in the Commons on three major votes pertaining to her Brexit deal.

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She was replaced through a leadership contest that saw Boris Johnson installed as leader of the Conservative Party.

Johnson’s government was beset by challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic, climate crises, the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the early days of the cost-of-living crisis.

But it would be his various scandals and controversies - notably the Partygate sage and the mishandling of the promotion of MP Chris Pincher, against whom sexual assault allegations had been made that were known to Johnson - that would be his undoing.

After a wave of resignations swept through Westminster (62 of the UK’s 179 government ministers vacated their posts), Johnson was himself forced to resign in mid-2022.

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Liz Truss was his replacement following a weeks-long leadership contest. At the time of writing, she has served only 40 days in office, but yet it is genuinely unknown how many more she will manage.

Could she bring the Tories’ latest run in power to an end? Were she to step down or be forced from the job, a general election would surely be called, and with Labour polling favourably in recent weeks, continued Conservative leadership in government is far from certain.

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