Boris Johnson may try to replace Liz Truss as prime minister.
(Picture: Getty Images)Liz Truss is set to become shortest-serving Prime Minister in history after announcing her resignment on her 45th day in the role.
Some of the candidates being mentioned to succeed Truss are Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, and Jeremy Hunt. The winner of the leadership race will be chosen over the course of the following week, and the new prime minister will take office on Friday.
The person Truss replaced a little over a month ago, Boris Johnson, is yet another name generating considerable buzz.
If Johnson is re-elected, he wouldn’t be the first Prime Minister serving two terms.
Who else has served twice and what are the rules? Here’s everything you need to know.
Was Winston Churchill Prime Minister twice?
Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister twice, from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.
He was in the role during the bulk of the Second World War, most notable for his speeches and radio broadcasts that helped inspire British resistance during a time when the British Commonwealth and Empire stood almost alone in its active opposition to Nazi Germany.
Churchill had proved himself to be a popular leader, so he was confident that the Conservatives would win the 1945 election. However, the Labour Party, led by Clement Attlee, won the general election decisively, winning 393 seats, while the second-placed Conservatives only secured 197.
While the Conservative campaign focused on Churchill’s popular appeal, the Labour Party’s manifesto included a commitment to full employment, affordable housing, and social security and health care for all.
He would go on to be re-elected as Prime Minister in 1951. The Conservatives won 302 seats, while Labour took 295.
Who else served twice?
In total, 13 prime ministers have served two terms.
As well as Churchill, this includes Harold Wilson, Benjamin Disraeli, Ramsay MacDonald, William Lamb, Thomas Pelham-Holles, Henry John Temple, Robert Peel, William Pitt the Younger, William Cavendish-Bentinck, Charles Watson-Wentworth, Lord John Russell and Arthur Wellesley.
Three prime ministers in British history have served second terms non-consecutively.
The first was William Lamb, who was dismissed by King William IV in 1834 and was later re-appointed and served for six more years.
Labour’s Wilson was leader from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976, while Churchill served from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.
The UK’s longest consecutively serving prime minister is Mr Cavendish-Bentinck, whose first term began on April 2, 1783 and whose second and final term ended on October 4, 1809.
The rules around serving twice
Unlike the US, there is no limit or rule to the number of terms someone can serve as Prime Minister.
A number of Tory MPs have already thrown their support behind a Johnson comeback, including Parliamentary Secretary Brendan Clarke-Smith.
Clarke-Smith told Sky News: “What we need now, we need someone who can come in, who can bring people together, somebody who actually has that mandate, a mandate from the people at the last general election, a mandate from party members and somebody actually who can get this party going again, get us winning elections again.
“The only person that I think that ticks all those boxes is Boris Johnson.”
