Sir Keir Starmer’s spell as prime minister was long enough to outlast that of his predecessor Rishi Sunak, but ranks as one of the briefest premierships of modern times.
He is also the shortest-serving Labour prime minister in history.
Sir Keir will have clocked up 745 days as prime minister when he leaves Downing Street on Monday.
He has outrun his two immediate Conservative predecessors, Rishi Sunak (619 days from October 2022 to July 2024) and Liz Truss (49 days from September to October 2022).
He also spent longer in office than three other post-1900 prime ministers: Andrew Bonar Law (211 days from October 1922 to May 1923), Alec Douglas-Home (364 days from October 1963 to October 1964) and Anthony Eden (645 days from April 1955 to January 1957), all Conservatives.
But Sir Keir needed to remain in office until November 5 of this year to climb another place up the list, at which point he would have overtaken Liberal prime minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who served 852 days in office from 1905 to 1908.
Sir Keir will bow out as his party’s shortest-serving premier in history, behind all six previous Labour prime ministers.
Tony Blair remains Labour’s longest-serving prime minister, clocking up 3,708 days from May 1997 to June 2007.
In second place is Harold Wilson, who served two non-consecutive periods in office, October 1964 to June 1970 and March 1974 to April 1976, which together totalled 2,835 days.
Ramsay MacDonald also spent two non-consecutive periods as prime minister, from January to November 1924 and June 1929 to June 1935, adding up to 2,480 days – though for the period from 1931 to 1935 he was a member of the short-lived National Labour party, having been expelled from the official Labour party after forming a coalition government.
Clement Attlee was Labour prime minister continuously for 2,283 days from July 1945 to October 1951, while Jim Callaghan clocked up 1,124 days from April 1976 to May 1979, just ahead of Gordon Brown’s total of 1,049 days from June 2007 to May 2010.
Had Sir Keir continued as prime minister until at least May 21 2027, he would have outrun Gordon Brown.
Andy Burnham will start his premiership with the next general election due to take place no later than August 2029.
This is long enough for Mr Burnham to clock up more days in office than both Sir Keir and Mr Brown, should he stay as prime minister for the remainder of this Parliament.
