Paul Embery(@PaulEmbery):Why do the media keep saying we've had seven prime ministers in 10 years? We've had seven in *16* years. The former calculation only works if you discount the first five years of David Cameron's premiership (2010-15) and include only his final year (2016). But, if you do that, it would mean that Britain had only two PMs between 1997 and 2015 (Blair and Brown), because obviously you couldn't include Cameron in *both* calculations. When calculating the number of PMs in a particular period, their *whole* tenure should be factored in, otherwise the figure ends up being misleading.

2026.07.20 11:05

Why do the media keep saying we've had seven prime ministers in 10 years? We've had seven in *16* years. The former calculation only works if you discount the first five years of David Cameron's premiership (2010-15) and include only his final year (2016). But, if you do that, it would mean that Britain had only two PMs between 1997 and 2015 (Blair and Brown), because obviously you couldn't include Cameron in *both* calculations. When calculating the number of PMs in a particular period, their *whole* tenure should be factored in, otherwise the figure ends up being misleading.

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