Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of His/Her Majesty's Government. The Prime Minister and Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior ministers, who are government department heads) are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party or parties, and ultimately to the electorate. The office of the prime minister is the highest elected political office in the modern United Kingdom.

The office was not "created" or "established", but rather has evolved into existence over a period of three centuries, with various unwritten rules, customs, and laws hardening into the current office.

This article lists the known prime ministers found in the works of Harry Turtledove after the Point of Divergence. Many prime ministers who served before the POD of a given alternate history are mentioned in passing. Also stories set in OTL may reference past PMs, or even the sitting PM.

In the Presence of Mine Enemies

With Germany emerging victorious from the Second World War, the United Kingdom was annexed to the Greater German Reich, and the British Union of Fascists became the country's only legal party. In 2010, the BUF launched a push for reform within its borders that saw the selection of a Prime Minister by popular vote by party members.

Prime Minister	Term	Party
Winston Churchill	1940-41?	Conservative Party (UK)
Oswald Mosley	c. 1941-1980?	British Union of Fascists
Unknown	1980-2010	BUF
Charlie Lynton	2010-?	BUF

Note: Mosley is never explicitly called a PM, although evidence available suggests he either served in that role or in a similar one.

Southern Victory

During the War of Secession, then-Prime Minister Lord Palmerston supported the seceding Confederate States, forging an alliance that would carry on into the next century and two wars. The United Kingdom was on the losing side of the Great War in 1917, which eventually begat a revanchist coalition of the Conservative Party led by Winston Churchill and the Silver Shirts led by Oswald Mosley in 1932. This coalition led the country into war against Germany in 1941. While initially successful, the tide turned against the UK starting in 1943. Germany destroyed three major British cities with superbombs in 1944, prompting a non-confidence vote which toppled Churchill, and saw the rise of Horace Wilson.

Prime Minister	Term	Party
Lord Palmerston	1859-1865(?)	Liberal Party
Unknown	1865-1932	Various
Winston Churchill	1932-1944	Conservative Party (senior partner in coalition with Silver Shirts)
Horace Wilson (acting)	1944-19??	Unknown

The Two Georges

Several people are mentioned as serving as PMs in the past, although their terms and their party aren't always identified.

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William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham PC Prime Minister during the 1760s. He helped ease the tensions between Britain and its North American colonies, insuring that the empire remained intact. He appears in the painting The Two Georges.

• ,

Frederick North, Lord North, Chancellor of the Exchequer and who succeeded Pitt as Prime Minister. He is in the painting, The Two Georges.

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Benjamin Disraeli, presumably a PM in the 19th Century as a province of the North American Union is named in his honor.

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Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, the likely PM in 1995. She is not identified by name, but the fact that it is identified as a woman combined with the preponderance of historical contemporary figures in the work suggest the PM is indeed Thatcher.

The War That Came Early

Neville Chamberlain led Britain through the Second World War during its first phase against Germany and then after the "big switch" of mid-1940 which saw Britain align itself with Germany against the Soviet Union. Not long after, Chamberlain's failing health led him to step down and press for the appointment of his close adviser, Horace Wilson. Wilson's term in late 1940 and into 1941 saw increased scrutiny of the ministry's critics at home and a crackdown on protests.

Wilson's increasing authoritarianism finally prompted a military coup in the spring of 1941. The interim government detained Wilson, ended the war with the USSR, and restarted the war with Germany. It also promised elections throughout the remainder of 1941, but reset the date each time. Soon, it was 1943, and the military still held power. In the meantime, along with overseeing a war in North Africa and the reopening of the Western Front in Europe, the government reassigned several key members of the Wilson government to diplomatic positions in distant countries so as to keep them under control.

Even after the war in Europe ended in 1944, the military maintained control over the government.

Prime Minister	Term	Party
Neville Chamberlain	1937-1940	Conservative Party
Horace Wilson	1940-1941	Conservative Party
Interim Military Government	1941-194?	N/A

Worldwar

Only two Prime Ministers are identified in the series:

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Winston Churchill, PM throughout the Worldwar quartet.

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Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, identified as the PM in Aftershocks, but was presumably the PM throughout the Colonization series.

Other Prime Ministers

In addition to the above, Winston Churchill is the PM in "News From the Front".

The novel Joe Steele follows the same line of succession as OTL, with Winston Churchill succeeding Neville Chamberlain in 1940, and in turn being succeeded by Clement Attlee in 1945. Churchill directly appears, while Chamberlain and Attlee are quickly referenced. Churchill also appears in the short story, the only PM to do so.

Attlee is also PM in The Man With the Iron Heart after defeating Churchill in 1945, as in OTL.

Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton appears in "A Massachusetts Yankee in King Arthur's Court" in segments that take place in 1963.

Historical Prime Ministers in Non-PM Roles

Several historical Prime Ministers have appeared in the works Harry Turtledove in a capacity other than as Prime Minister.

Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove pointedly tell the reader that George Grenville did not become PM in The Two Georges.

William Petty-FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Shelburne is Secretary of State in The United States of Atlantis, just as he was in OTL. It is unknown whether he became PM later in the Atlantis timeline.

William Gladstone is referenced in his OTL position of Chancellor of the Exchequer in The Guns of the South. Whether or not he became PM is unknown.

Winston Churchill is an MP and Minister of War in The War That Came Early. He is killed in May, 1940 before he can become PM.

Anthony Eden appears as an MP in The War That Came Early, but the series ends before he has an opportunity to become PM.

Harold Macmillan also appears as an MP in The War That Came Early, but the series ends before he has an opportunity to become PM.

See Also

• Monarch of the United Kingdom, the head of state of the United Kingdom
• President of the United States, the office of the head of state and government of the United States of America.