The Good, the Not so Good, and Liz Truss: MPs’ Evaluations of Postwar Prime Ministers

21 February, 2024

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This article reports the findings from a 2023 survey that invited all MPs to evaluate the performance of postwar prime ministers from Clement Attlee to Liz Truss. It also compares MPs’ responses with those from a similar survey conducted in 2013. Among the MPs who responded in 2023, Margaret Thatcher was ranked as the most successful postwar prime minister, and Truss was ranked as the least successful. The results further suggest that prime ministers’ historical reputations among MPs are relatively sticky, closely associated with their length of tenure in 10 Downing Street, and greatly affected by party loyalties. Lastly, the rankings based on parliamentary opinion in 2023 are broadly comparable with those based on recent surveys of academic and public opinion.

Royal Holloway Group PR3710

Royal Holloway Group PR3710 were a group of staff and undergraduate students at Royal Holloway, University of London, led by Professor Nicholas Allen, Professor of Politics, and comprising John Abbott, Bilan Cali, Isaac Crosby, Amanpreet Dhami, Tom Donnelly, Harry Footman, Aleena Khan, Meera Saravanan, Tom Simpson, Aaron Sterlin, Kia Tomczak-John, Alfie Vines and Theo Williams.
Articles by Royal Holloway Group PR3710

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Volume 96, Issue 2

This issue features a collection titled 'Governing from the Centre Left' edited by Deborah Mabbett and Peter Sloman. In this collection, authors including Claire Ainsley, Jörg Michael Dostal and Eunice Goes examine how centre-left governments in North America, Australasia, and Western Europe have dealt with recent global pressures, and consider what lessons the UK Labour government should learn from its overseas counterparts. Other articles include a commentary by Ben Jackson titled 'Poverty and the Labour Party'; John Connolly, Matthew Flinders and David Judge on 'How Not to Deliver Policies: Lessons in Undeliverability from the Conservative Governments of 2019–2024'; Stewart Lansley on 'Wealth Accumulation: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'; and Coree Brown Swan, Paul Anderson, and Judith Sijstermans on 'Politics and the Pandemic: The UK Covid-19 Inquiry and Devolution'. A selection of book reviews feature Victoria Brittain's review of 'Palestinian Refugee Women from Syria to Jordan, Decolonizing the Geopolitics of Displacement' by Afaf Jabiri, and Anna Coote's review of 'The Care Dilemma: Caring Enough in the Age of Sex Equality', by David Goodhart.

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