The British like queues: at bus stops and train stations, supermarkets and banks. So perhaps it is only fitting Downing Street – the home of the prime minister – has one too. And now it is time for the next in line.
Sir Keir Starmer, the UK’s sixth PM in the past 10 years, resigned this morning after losing the support of over 100 Labour MPs. His replacement? Likely Andy Burnham, the MP from Makersfield and ex-mayor of the Greater Manchester area.
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But who was before Starmer? And who before them? If Downing Street has a queue now, that is because it has been a revolving door this decade past. So, fancy a trip down memory lane?
There was Conservative leader Liz Truss – who lasted only 44 days. Then Rishi Sunak was PM for 20 months – an eternity, really. Before them, Boris Johnson and his Covid controversies, and Theresa May sunk by Brexit.
And before both was David Cameron, the EU vote gambler.
The Truss tale
The ex-foreign minister opened the front door and walked into Downing Street in September 2022, and kicked up a hornet’s nest almost immediately. Her flagship policy was the spectacular £45 billion tax cuts package that would have benefitted the richest five per cent.
At the centre of that ill-advised policy – which Truss imagined would jumpstart a stuttering, post-Covid British economy – was a £2 billion tax relief for those earning over £150,000 a year.
Liz Truss, dubbed the ‘Iceberg Lady’ – a jibe over ‘Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher (File)
It was *not* a good idea. British think tank Resolution Foundation called it a plan to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and the people hated it, well except for the very rich. That it came at a time when millions were facing a cost-of-living crisis, often having to choose between eating or having electricity, it spelt Truss’ downfall even before she unpacked her bags.
The Labour party cried foul at the idea; Starmer called it a “disastrous kamikaze” proposal, but had to wait in line to present his ideas to the British public. Rishi Sunak was next in line.
Truss quit in October 2022.
Some claimed she left behind a head of lettuce in the Downing Street kitchen. Whether it was the same one the Daily Star left to rot live on the internet is unclear. The tabloid bet that Truss would be fired faster than that lettuce could stay fresh. The lettuce won.
The Sunak story
In came Sunak, the man who survived the chaos of the Truss days and who, as finance minister, warned her against the tax cut. ‘Fairytale economics’ he called it. ‘I told you so’ he said, after the economy crashed. ‘Here are the keys… clean up the mess’, the Conservatives said afterwards.
The irony was hard to miss. An Indian-born politician in charge of the British government. The jokes wrote themselves. Sunak, Trevor Noah chuckled, would announce on day 1 of his prime ministership: ‘I’m selling the whole country to India… it’s revenge time… that was the plan.’
Rishi Sunak is also Infosys founder Naryana Murthy’s son-in-law
Sunak lasted nearly two years. He didn’t sell the UK to India but couldn’t clean up Truss’ chaos, though he didn’t help his cause with promises to “reduce net migration” (which kept climbing) or “ban cannabis in schools (which nobody asked for)”.
Still, at least he lasted till the 2024 election. Certainly no lettuce could have lasted longer.
The Boris brief
He promised to “get Brexit done” even if occasionally forgetting to comb his hair.
And, to be fair, he did, somehow. Johnson led the British out of the EU, signed 11 new trade deals with non-EU nations, and oversaw the UK’s £393 billion Covid spending response.
Boris Johnson attended Eton, among the UK’s most elite and prestigious boarding schools
But in the nearly three years he was PM he also hosted parties during the pandemic lockdown – which the public just did not like – and tried to stop members of his cabinet from quitting.
‘Partygate’ was the final straw. Out he went.
The May moments
Before Johnson there was Theresa May.
She inherited the Brexit bomb from Cameron and tried to defuse it but kept cutting the wrong wire. Each time she made an offer either the EU wouldn’t budge or the Tories wouldn’t bend.
Parliament rejected her deal thrice. That is a lot. It was very embarrassing.
There was no ‘third time lucky’ for Theresa May and her Brexit deal
By 2019 her own party turned. After 1,075 days, they changed the Downing Street front door lock. May didn’t have a lettuce story as she left, or a scandal. She had Brexit – that was the joke.
The Cameron chronicle
Before May was Cameron, the man who thought a Brexit referendum could help him control his party.
He lasted for nearly six years. Or, put it another way, one day longer than the campaign.
David Cameron, the last UK prime minister to serve a full term
Cameron bet the unity of his party on the 2016 vote, brilliantly strategising a call to ‘remain’ in the European Union while asking the British public if they wanted to leave and use maroon-coloured passports. They said ‘yes, please’. Nonplussed, Cameron said ‘ok, but I quit’.
So there we go. Six PMs in 10 years if Starmer walks out. Right then, who’s next?
