member_of_political_party james chuter ede
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of Her Majesty ' s Government in the United Kingdom . The prime minister ( informal abbreviation : PM ) and Cabinet ( consisting of all the most senior ministers , most of whom are government department heads ) are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch , to Parliament , to their political party and ultimately to the electorate . The office is one of the Great Offices of State . The , Theresa May , leader of the ___MASK4___ , was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016 . James Chuter Ede , Baron Chuter - Ede CH PC JP DL ( 11 September 1882 -- 11 November 1965 ) was a British teacher , trade unionist and Labour politician . He served as Home Secretary under Prime Minister Clement Attlee from 1945 to 1951 , becoming the longest - serving Home Secretary of the 20th century . A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate , reducing the dominance of any one party within that coalition . The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament . A coalition government might also be created in a time of national difficulty or crisis ( for example , during wartime or economic crisis ) to give a government the high degree of perceived political legitimacy or collective identity it desires while also playing a role in diminishing internal political strife . In such times , parties have formed all - party coalitions ( national ___MASK16___ governments , grand coalitions ). If a coalition collapses , a confidence vote is held or a motion of no confidence is taken . Clement Richard Attlee , 1st Earl Attlee , ( 3 January 1883  8 October 1967 ) was a British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and the Leader of the ___MASK75___ from 1935 to 1955 . Attlee was the first person to hold the office of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , serving under Winston Churchill in the wartime coalition government . He went on to lead the ___MASK75___ to a landslide election victory in summer 1945 and to a narrow victory in 1950 . He became the first Labour Prime Minister ever to serve a full five - year term , as well as the first to command a Labour majority in Parliament and remains the longest - ever serving Leader of the ___MASK75___ .