King Charles Set for Fourth Prime Minister of 4-Year Reign. How Many PMs Did Queen Elizabeth Have?
King Charles Set for Fourth Prime Minister of 4-Year Reign. How Many PMs Did Queen Elizabeth Have?
Stephanie PetitMon, June 22, 2026 at 2:31 PM UTC
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King Charles; Liz Truss; Rishi Sunak; Keir StarmerCredit: Chris Jackson/Getty; Alex Ellinghausen/Australian Financial Review via Getty; Leon Neal/Getty; Dan Kitwood/Getty -
Keir Starmer announced his resignation as prime minister, setting up King Charles to welcome the fourth prime minister of his four-year reign
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth had only 15 prime ministers across her 70 years on the throne
Find out more about how the U.K. appoints political leaders and the monarch's relationship with the prime minister
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation from the role, setting up King Charles to welcome the fourth prime minister of his reign.
On June 22, Starmer announced his resignation after calling the British monarch to inform him of the decision. The news also came just hours after President Donald Trump wrote on his TruthSocial account, "Keir Starmer will resign."
When King Charles, 77, acceded to the throne in 2022 upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, it was just days after Liz Truss had been appointed as the new U.K. prime minister. Truss left office the following month after just 45 days — making her the shortest-serving prime minister in U.K. history — and Rishi Sunak held the role from October 2022 until July 2024, when Starmer was sworn in.
While Americans hold a presidential election every four years, the U.K. does not have fixed term limits for its prime ministers. Instead, the position operates on a constitutional convention where the leader of the political party with a majority in the House of Commons holds power. If a party loses faith in its leader, it can internally change leaders without a national election. Once the party elects a new leader, that person is formally appointed as the prime minister by the monarch.
King Charles will soon welcome the fourth prime minister of his four-year reign, but Queen Elizabeth had just 15 prime ministers across her 70 years as the ruling monarch.
When Queen Elizabeth acceded to the throne in 1952 upon the death of her father, King George VI, Winston Churchill was the British prime minister.
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The monarch was quite fond of Churchill and sent him a handwritten letter upon his retirement. In it, she said no one "will ever for me be able to hold the place of my first prime minister, to whom both my husband and I owe so much and for whose wise guidance during the early years of my reign I shall always be so profoundly grateful," according to Yahoo.
Credit: Central Press/Getty
Queen Elizabeth went on to work with 14 more prime ministers during her reign, including the first woman to hold the role: Margaret Thatcher, who was also the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, from 1979 to 1990.
"It was the starchiest relationship. She was deferential, much too deferential. The Queen was not requiring so much," said one longtime observer, according to The Daily Beast. A family friend added: "The Queen had some most amusing and well-observed lines about Thatcher."
Queen Elizabeth's final public royal duty, which took place two days before her death in September 2022, was to give a formal farewell to Boris Johnson and welcome Truss as the new prime minister. In a royal first, Truss traveled to Balmoral Castle in Scotland for the appointment, where the Queen traditionally spent her summer break.
Queen Elizabeth and Liz Truss on Sept. 6, 2022Credit: JANE BARLOW/POOL/AFP via Getty
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The British monarch meets with the prime minister every week. According to the royal family's official website, "The King holds a weekly audience with the prime minister to discuss government matters. The audience is entirely private. Though the King remains politically neutral on all matters, he is able to 'advise and warn' his ministers — including his prime minister — when necessary."
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