Internal political developments: After Germany’s unconditional surrender (in force since May 9, 1945), cabinet members who did not belong to the Conservative Party resigned. In the general election of July 1945, the Labor Party won an extremely high election with 393 seats (compared to 189 for the Conservatives). As Prime Minister (1945–51), Attlee appointed important representatives of the British labor movement and members of the British War Cabinet to his government, such as H. S. Morrison (President of the Privy Council), H. Dalton (Finance), S. Cripps (Commerce) and E. Bevin (Exterior). The financial situation was extremely difficult. In order to raise the costs of the war, large parts of the capital invested abroad (in the amount of over £ 1 billion) had been sold during the war, the interest flow of which now ceased; national wealth had declined by £ 7.5 billion. In this situation, the costs of rebuilding the country, of pensions and of converting the economy from war to peace production put a heavy strain on the state budget. As finance minister, Cripps therefore implemented an austerity program (Austerity); the bonds granted by the USA in 1946 brought major encroachments on the independence of British monetary and foreign trade policy and made clear the economic and financial dependence of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the USA. Without the Marshall Plan Aid (ERP, 1947) the British economy would have collapsed. The devaluation of the pound by almost a third of its value (1949) was perceived as a serious loss of foreign policy weight.
With the law to nationalize the Bank of England (December 1945), the Labor government initiated a reform program. In 1946 it nationalized coal mining and civil aviation, in 1947 essential parts of transport (including railways, ports, inland shipping) and in 1947/48 electricity and gas production. The nationalization of the iron and steel industry, initiated in 1948 (carried out in 1951), was particularly contested between her and the conservative opposition. With the Social Security Act (1946) and the introduction of a free public health service (1946), the Attlee government sought to develop Great Britain and Northern Ireland into a welfare state.
After the parliamentary majority of the Labor government had been reduced to 5 seats in the general election in 1950, the election victory of the Conservatives (1951) with 321 seats compared to 295 for the Labor Party established a longer period of conservative governments (until 1964). In contrast to their election manifesto, the Conservatives under the Churchill government (1951–55) reversed only a few nationalizations, including those of the iron and steel industry. The British position in foreign trade improved as the global economy recovered. After the death of George VI. (February 6, 1952), Elizabeth II (crowned on June 2, 1953) ascended the throne. In April 1955, Eden took over as Churchill’s successor the office of prime minister. Emerging stronger from the general election of 1955, according to Hyperrestaurant, the Eden government sought to implement the idea of a socially responsible democracy based on private property. However, it did not succeed in curbing increasing inflation and the unions’ strike and wage policy, which had serious economic consequences.
Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
| British Prime Minister | |
| Robert Walpole (Whig) | 1721-1742 |
| Spencer Compton (Whig) | 1742-1743 |
| Henry Pelham (Whig) | 1743-1754 |
| Thomas Pelham-Holles (Whig) | 1754-1756, 1757-1762 |
| William Cavendish (Whig) | 1756-1757 |
| John Stuart | 1762-1763 |
| George Grenville | 1763-1765 |
| Charles Watson Wentworth (Whig) | 1765-1766, 1782 |
| William Pitt, the elder | 1766-1768 |
| Augustus Henry Fitzroy | 1768-1770 |
| Frederick North | 1770-1782 |
| William Petty-Fitzmaurice | 1782-1783 |
| William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (Whig) | 1783, 1807-1809 |
| William Pitt the Younger (Tory) | 1783-1801, 1804-1806 |
| Henry Addington (Tory) | 1801-1804 |
| William Wyndham Grenville | 1806-1807 |
| Spencer Perceval (Tory) | 1809-1812 |
| Robert Banks Jenkinson (Tory) | 1812-1827 |
| George Canning (Tory) | 1827 |
| Frederick John Robinson (Tory) | 1827-1828 |
| Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (Tory) | 1828-1830, 1834 |
| Charles Gray (Whig) | 1830-1834 |
| William Lamb (Whig) | 1834, 1835-1841 |
| Sir Robert Peel (Tory, later cons.) *) | 1834-1835, 1841-1846 |
| John Russell (first Whig Liberal, then Liberal Party) | 1846-1852, 1865-1866 |
| Edward Geoffrey Stanley (Cons.) | 1852, 1858-1859, 1866-1868 |
| George Hamilton-Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen | 1852-1855 |
| Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (Liberal Party) | 1855-1858, 1859-1865 |
| Benjamin Disraeli (cons.) | 1868, 1874-1880 |
| William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal Party) | 1868-1874, 1880-1885, 1886, 1892-1894 |
| Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury (Cons.) | 1885-1886, 1886-1892, 1895-1902 |
| Archibald Philip Primrose, Earl of Rosebery (Liberal Party) | 1894-1895 |
| Arthur James Balfour (Cons.) | 1902-1905 |
| Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal Party) | 1905-1908 |
| Herbert Henry Asquith (Liberal Party) | 1908-1916 |
| David Lloyd George (Liberal Party) | 1916-1922 |
| Andrew Bonar Law (Cons.) | 1922-1923 |
| Stanley Baldwin (Cons.) | 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937 |
| James Ramsay MacDonald (Labor Party) | 1924, 1929-1935 |
| Arthur Neville Chamberlain (Cons.) | 1937-1940 |
| Sir Winston Churchill (Cons.) | 1940-1945, 1951-1955 |
| Clement Richard Attlee (Labor Party) | 1945-1951 |
| Sir Robert Anthony Eden (Cons.) | 1955-1957 |
| Harold Macmillan (Cons.) | 1957-1963 |
| Sir Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home(Cons.) | 1963-1964 |
| Harold Wilson (Labor Party) | 1964-1970, 1974-1976 |
| Edward Heath (Cons.) | 1970-1974 |
| James Callaghan (Labor Party) | 1976-1979 |
| Margaret Thatcher (Cons.) | 1979-1990 |
| John Major (Cons.) | 1990-1997 |
| Tony Blair (Labor Party) | 1997-2007 |
| Gordon Brown (Labor Party) | 2007-2010 |
| David Cameron (Cons.) | 2010-2016 |
| Theresa May (cons.) | 2016–19 |
| Boris Johnson (Cons.) | since 2019 |
| *) Cons. = Conservative and Unionist Party | |
