UK Prime Ministers and their Constituencies II Quiz

Answer: Woodford

Up to the 1945 general election, Winston Churchill had served as an MP in four different constituencies - Oldham, Manchester North-West, Dundee and, most recently, Epping. Changes to constituency boundaries in 1945 saw Epping divided into two, with one retaining the name, and the other to be named Woodford.

It was in the latter that Churchill stood in 1945, winning comfortably, although his party lost the election. However, in 1951, Churchill led the Conservative Party to victory and returned as Prime Minister, eventually serving until 1955.

He remained as MP for Woodford until stepping down at the 1964 general election.

Answer: Warwick and Leamington

Anthony Eden was originally selected as a parliamentary candidate in Spennymoor for the general election held in November 1922, but it was in the election held the following year, when he ran in Warwick and Leamington (against the mother-in-law of his own sister) that he was first elected. Eden first entered government in 1931, and served in a number of significant positions, including three stints as Foreign Secretary, before he was appointed Prime Minister in April 1955, succeeding Sir Winston Churchill.

However, Eden served less than two years in office before resigning in January 1957, at the same time stepping down from the constituency he had served for more than thirty years.

Answer: Bromley

Harold Macmillan first entered the House of Commons in the general election of 1923 representing Stockton-on-Tees, a seat he held for more than twenty years. He entered government as a junior minister in 1940 and attained a Cabinet seat as the resident minister in the Mediterranean in 1942.

However, Macmillan lost his seat in the landslide 1945 general election defeat, making a speedy return to the Commons the same year when he was elected MP for Bromley in a by-election. It was as MP for Bromley that he became first Foreign Secretary, then Chancellor of the Exchequer under Sir Anthony Eden, before becoming Prime Minister himself in 1957. Having resigned from the premiership in 1963, he stepped down as an MP the following year.

Answer: Kinross and West Perthshire

In October 1963, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was taken ill, and elected to resign, with the Foreign Secretary, the Earl of Home, selected to replace him. However, it was felt at the time that the Prime Minister would not be able to govern effectively from the House of Lords. So, Home used the newly passed Peerage Act to vacate his title and stood in the upcoming by-election for the vacant House of Commons seat of Kinross & West Perthshire as Sir Alec Douglas-Home (meaning that for 20 days between disclaiming his title and winning the by-election, the Prime Minister sat in neither of the Houses of Parliament). Home was Prime Minister for twelve months, and served as the MP for Kinross & West Perthshire until the October 1974 general election.

Answer: Huyton

Harold Wilson first entered the House of Commons in the Labour landslide victory in the 1945 general election representing Ormskirk, immediately being appointed as a junior minister in the new government. At the following 1950 general election, as a result of boundary changes altering his constituency, he instead stood in Huyton.

Although Labour went into opposition in 1951, Wilson remained at the forefront of the party, serving in the Shadow Cabinet under Hugh Gaitskell until the leader's death in 1963.

The subsequent leadership election saw Wilson rise to the leadership, and he became Prime Minister the following year after the 1964 general election. He eventually served two terms in the premiership, resigning in 1976, before stepping down as an MP in 1983.

Answer: Bexley

Edward Heath became an MP in the 1950 general election, when he won Bexley by just 133 votes. While in Opposition between 1950 and 1951, he was appointed a junior whip, rising through the ranks of the Whips' Office until he was appointed Government Chief Whip in 1955.

Heath was appointed to the Cabinet in 1959 as Minister of Labour, subsequently being appointed as Lord Privy Seal in 1960, and Trade Secretary in 1963. Following the 1964 General Election, Heath became Leader of the Opposition; he became Prime Minister after the 1970 general election.

Heath served as MP for Bexley until 1974, when the constituency was abolished, and he instead stood for election in Sidcup. After his term as Prime Minister ended, he remained as an MP until 2001.

Answer: Cardiff South-East

James Callaghan was initially selected as the Labour candidate for Cardiff South-East while he was on leave from the Royal Navy during the Second World War, eventually being elected in the 1945 general election. During the years of government he served as a junior minister at the Ministry of Transport and the Admiralty before Labour went into opposition in 1951, after which he was a constant member of the Shadow Cabinet until 1964, when he was appointed Chancellor under Harold Wilson.

He subsequently served as both Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary before, in 1976, succeeding Wilson as Labour leader and Prime Minister.

His premiership lasted until Labour's defeat in the 1979 general election, after which he served on the backbenches until 1987.

Answer: Finchley

Margaret Thatcher first stood for election in Dartford in the 1950 general election. However, it was only after three unsuccessful attempts (twice in Dartford and once in Orpington) that, in the 1959 general election, she finally became an MP, representing Finchley.

She was appointed to her first ministerial role in 1961 by Harold Macmillan. After the Conservatives' 1964 election defeat, she became part of the opposition front bench, eventually joining the Shadow Cabinet in 1970. Following the 1970 general election, Edward Heath appointed her as Education Secretary, while, after the 1974 election defeat, she succeeded Heath as Leader of the Opposition, becoming Prime Minister in 1979.

She remained in office until 1990 and stepped down as an MP in 1992.

Answer: Huntingdon

John Major made his first efforts to enter the House of Commons in the two general elections held in 1974, when he stood unsuccessfully in St Pancras North. It was only in 1979 that he became an MP when he was elected in Huntingdonshire, which was renamed as Huntingdon in 1983.

In 1981 he gained his first government role, before joining the Whips' Office in 1983. Following the 1983 general election, he began a rise through government ranks, joining the Cabinet in 1987 as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

In 1989, he was appointed Foreign Secretary and then Chancellor of the Exchequer in rapid succession, before he succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister in November 1990. After defeat in the 1997 general election, Major eventually stepped down as an MP in 2001.

Answer: Sedgefield

Having initially tried to win a council seat, Tony Blair's first effort to enter the House of Commons came in a 1982 by-election in Beaconsfield. Although he lost, his raised profile led to his being selected as the Labour candidate for Sedgefield, which he won at the 1983 general election. Having won a seat, he then rose rapidly through the party's ranks, reaching the front bench in 1987. Blair was appointed as Shadow Home Secretary in 1992 by John Smith, whom he succeeded as Leader of the Opposition in 1994.

The Labour Party's landslide victory in the 1997 general election saw Blair become Prime Minister, a position he held for a decade until he stood down in 2007, at the same time also stepping aside as an MP.

Answer: Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath

Gordon Brown first attempted to win a seat in the House of Commons at the 1979 general election, when he stood in Edinburgh South. He was then successful at the following 1983 general election when he became MP for Dunfermline East. He rose through the ranks of the Labour Party from 1985 when he became a Trade and Industry spokesman, eventually becoming Shadow Chancellor in 1992. Following the 1997 general election, he was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer, a position he occupied for ten years, including through the 2005 general election, when his constituency was renamed as Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

He became Prime Minister in 2007 and served until defeat in the 2010 general election. Returning to the backbenches, he stepped down as an MP in 2015.

Answer: Witney

David Cameron's first effort to win a seat in the Commons came when he stood in Stafford in the 1997 general election. Having been unsuccessful, he eventually won the seat of Witney four years later in the 2001 general election. Appointed to the front bench in 2003, he was eventually appointed Shadow Education Secretary in 2005, becoming Leader of the Opposition the same year. Following the 2010 general election, Cameron became Prime Minister at the head of a coalition government alongside the Liberal Democrats, which he led until gaining outright victory in the 2015 general election. Following the 2016 referendum on the UK's departure from the EU, Cameron stepped down as Prime Minister, which was quickly followed by his also stepping down as an MP.

Answer: Maidenhead

Theresa May had made two attempts to win a seat in the House of Commons - in the 1992 general election in North West Durham, and in a 1994 by-election in Barking - before she won Maidenhead in the 1997 general election. She was immediately appointed to the front bench, and joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1999 as Shadow Education and Employment Secretary.

She went on to occupy a number of roles until 2010, when she was appointed Home Secretary in the new coalition government under David Cameron. She remained in this role until 2016, when she succeeded Cameron as Prime Minister.

Her Premiership lasted until 2019 when she resigned, subsequently returning to the backbenches.

Answer: Uxbridge and South Ruislip

Boris Johnson was originally elected as an MP for Henley in the 2001 general election. He was appointed to his first senior position as Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party in 2003, before becoming Shadow Minister for the Arts in 2004, a post from which he was dismissed the following year. Having been elected Mayor of London, he stood down from his seat in 2008.

However, he returned to the House of Commons in the 2015 general election standing in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. In 2016, he was appointed Foreign Secretary by Theresa May, from which he resigned two years later.

In 2019, he was elected as Conservative Party Leader and succeeded May as Prime Minister, although a series of controversies led to his resignation from the premiership in 2022.

Answer: South West Norfolk

Liz Truss first attempted to enter the House of Commons when she stood in Hemsworth at the 2001 general election and tried again in 2005 when she stood in Calder Valley. It was at the third attempt, at the 2010 general election, that she finally became an MP, being elected in South-West Norfolk.

She was appointed as a junior minister in 2012 and entered the Cabinet when named as Environment Secretary by David Cameron in 2014. She went on to serve in a number of other senior roles, including Lord Chancellor, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Foreign Secretary between 2016 and 2022, when she was appointed as Prime Minister by Queen Elizabeth II, just two days prior to the death of the Queen.