So Theresa May has gone. I had forgotten that this changes the chart I first published in Mandates on this blog. I have revised the chart but I am trapped by my own rules.
My definition of a winning PM is one who fought a General Election and remained Prime Minister, this is what happened to May. However she resigned because she had lost the confidence of the House, the first to do so for a very long time.
While the chart suggests she was successful, in being a winning inheritor, she only ruled for three years, and had to resign. Arguably she failed to win the 2017 GE. The argument that in the modern party age, party primaries strengthen the candidate and the party still seems to hold true.
PMs and “coronations”
It seems I examined this a while ago, Electing a Prime Minister, where then 50% of post war Prime Ministers became so after winning an election, it is now a minority since Cameron did, but May & Johnson did not; they were appointed mid-term.
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