1991-1993: John Major (Conservative)
John Major's government was brought down by a confidence vote on the Maastricht Treaty that they lost by one vote. Major limped on to an election, which he was forced to compete on the platform of getting a mandate for Maastricht, a policy agreed on by all the major parties, with certain differences in implementation.
1993-1994: John Smith (Labour)
1993
Labour (John Smith): 322 Conservative (John Major): 259 Liberal Democrat (Paddy Ashdown): 45 UUP: 10 SNP: 5 Plaid Cymru: 5 SDLP: 3 Sinn Fein: 1 Speaker: 1
The 1993 election was fought on the issue of Europe and on the topic of fitness to govern, that John Major would be forced out was never really in doubt, but after what many people consider to be a very strong campaign he just about managed to deny Labour their majority. The new Labour government was forced to make a deal with the Liberal Democrats.
John Smith did not have a long time in Downing Street, but in that time he did oversee the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, implemented minimum wage laws and reformed the EU parliamentary election system to use D'Hondt. The dramatic failure of Labour that year, and the election of the first UKIP MEP, strongly coloured the rest of Labour's constitutional reforms.
1994-2006: Tony Blair (Labour)
1998
Labour (Tony Blair): 340 Conservative (John Redwood): 255 Liberal Democrat (Paddy Ashdown): 26 UUP: 9 SNP: 6 Plaid Cymru: 4 Sinn Fein: 4 DUP: 3 SDLP: 2 Speaker: 1
2002
Labour & Liberal Parties (Tony Blair): 345 Conservative (Michael Howard): 262 DUP: 7 Sinn Fein: 6 UUP: 2 SNP: 12 Plaid Cymru: 5 DUP: 3 SDLP: 2 Alliance: 1
Tony Blair took over as leader following the death of Smith and was best known for his enthusiasm in working with the Liberals. He introduced devolved assemblies in 1995, and adopted a system where a quarter of MPs were elected by regional STV constituencies. The government also lowered the age of consent for homosexual relationships. In 1998 he won a majority for his party in Parliament, but continued to work with the Liberal Democrats, a decision which meant that he had a stronger majority. Britain joined the Euro in 2000, an elected House of Lords was established in 2001.
In 2000, Michael Howard's Conservative Party started to achieve regular poll leads with a hard right anti-immigration and eurosceptic set of policies. Over the next two years the Liberal and Labour Parties started to plan for working together more closely, and ran a joint campaign in 2002, which allowed them to win a historic third election victory. The third term saw an establishment of English regional assemblies, a ban on smoking in public buildings, and the establishment of the first super-casinos. However the term was mostly dominated by the start of the War on Terror and the invasions of Afganistand and later, Iraq.
2006-2010: Andrew Tyrie (Conservative)
2006
Conservative (Andrew Tyrie): 327 Labour & Liberal Party (Tony Blair): 282 SNP: 15 DUP: 7 UKIP: 7 Sinn Fein: 6 Plaid Cymru: 6 Green: 1
Tyrie's victory in 2006 came after his very successful modernisation and de-toxification of the Tory brand. The party had opposed how the war on terror was fought, stood up against American civil rights abuses and criticised cases of unfair spying in Britain. His government is generally considered to have been quietly successful but with their tiny majority it struggled to pass major policy reforms aside from periodic attempts to legalise fox hunting, which was finally successful in 2009 and compounded the view that this was a low energy government out of touch with most people's needs.
2010-2018: Tim Farron (Labour & Liberal Parties)
2010
Labour & Liberal Parties (Tim Farron): 316 Conservative (Andrew Tyrie): 310 SNP: 19 Democratic Union Independence Party: 18 Sinn Fein: 5 Plaid Cymru: 5 Green: 2
2014
Labour & Liberal Party (Tim Farron): 327 Conservative (Iain Duncan Smith): 282 DUIP: 31 Green: 6 Sinn Fein: 5 SNP: 2 Plaid Cymru: 1
Tim Farron took over the Labour and Liberal Parties as Chair of the joint elections committee and stood as agreed on candidate for Prime Minister at a time when the parties were still unifying. At the time of his election, concerns were raised about his commitment to gay rights given his religion, however these were largely ignored given that he represented the party that would legalise gay marriage. This was achieved in 2011, and by 2012 civil partnerships were opened to heterosexual couples as well. Continuing with LGBT rights in his second term, the party adopted a self-identification system for trans people and passed tougher anti-discrimination laws.
On other issues, the LLP government opened up new funding streams to public bodies through extended PPI contracts, began construction of a high speed rail network, and oversaw one of the largest drives for renewables in the world. Farron was deeply involved in the establishment of the Joint European Armed Forces and making laying the groundwork for a directly elected president of the EU by 2020.
The LLP merged as a party in 2011 and, while there were dissenters, they held their own against Iain Duncan Smith in 2014. IDS spent much of his time disproving allegations that he was too right-wing, and the party ended up losing substantial numbers of votes to the DUIP, which had been formed as a merger of UKIP and the DUP.
The economic crash of 2015 did a great deal to shake faith in the LLP, however. The party struggled to make economies and justify past policies.
2018-2032: Nigel Farage (Conservative)
2018
Conservative (Nigel Farage): 399 Labour & Liberal Party (Tim Farron): 201 DUIP: 24 Green: 8 Sinn Fein: 5 SNP: 4 Plaid Cymru: 2
2022
Conservative (Nigel Farage): 303 Labour & Liberal Party (Philip Blond): 177 DUIP: 6 Sinn Fein: 4 SNP: 7 Plaid Cymru: 3
2026
Conservative (Nigel Farage): 272 Labour & Liberal Party (Venice Allan): 207 DUIP: 9 Sinn Fein: 2 SNP: 9 Plaid Cymru: 1
2030
Conservative (Nigel Farage): 239 Labour & Liberal Party (Venice Allan): 234 DUIP: 14 SNP: 13
Riding on the coat-tails of the rise of the hard-right, Farage pushed the Conservatives towards a kind of right wing populism that proved remarkably popular with the British people and will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most influential governments of the 21st century. His death this summer, after 22 years in power, marks the end of the longest ever period in office of any Prime Minister ever, and it is right an appropriate to take some time, now, to consider the legacy of a man who, whatever your opinion of his politics, has defined the identity of this nation like nobody else in centuries.
