member_of_political_party james gascoyne-cecil
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 ___MASK79___ , was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016 . The Great Seal of the Realm or Great Seal of the United Kingdom ( known prior to the Treaty of ___MASK85___ of 1707 as the Great Seal of England ; and from then until the ___MASK85___ of 1801 as the Great Seal of Great Britain and Ireland ) is a seal that is used to symbolise the Sovereign ' s approval of important state documents . Scotland since the 14th century has had its own seal , the Great Seal of Scotland and the current keeper under the terms of the Scotland Act 1998 , 45 ( 7 ) is the First Minister of Scotland . The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of ___MASK85___ of 1707 . A holder of the post would be the third - highest - ranked Great Officer of State , below the Lord High Steward and the Lord High Chancellor . The House of Lords of the United Kingdom , referred to ceremonially as the House of Peers , is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Like the House of Commons , it meets in the Palace of Westminster . Officially , the full name of the house is : " ___MASK75___ Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled ". James Brownlow William Gascoyne - Cecil , 2nd Marquess of Salisbury , KG PC ( 17 April 1791 -- 12 April 1868 ) , styled Viscount Cranborne until 1823 , was a British Conservative politician . He held office under the Earl of Derby as Lord Privy Seal in 1852 and Lord President of the Council between 1858 and 1859 . He was the father of Robert Gascoyne - Cecil , 3rd Marquess of Salisbury , three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . The Lord Privy Seal ( or , more formally , the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal ) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom , ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain . The office is one of the traditional sinecure offices of state . Originally , its holder was responsible for the monarch ' s personal ( privy ) seal ( as opposed to the Great Seal of the Realm , which is in the care of the Lord Chancellor ). Today , the holder of the office is invariably given a seat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom . Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne - Cecil , 3rd Marquess of Salisbury , ( 3 February 1830  22 August 1903 ), styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868 , was a British Conservative statesman , serving as prime minister three times for a total of over 13 years . He was the last prime minister to head his full administration from the House of Lords . The Lord Chancellor , formally the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain , is a senior functionary in the government of the United Kingdom . They are appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister . The Lord Chancellor is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State , ranking after only the Lord High Steward . Prior to the ___MASK85___ there were separate Lords Chancellor for England and Wales and for Scotland . The Lord President of the Council is the fourth of the Great Officers of State of the United Kingdom , ranking beneath the Lord High Treasurer and above the Lord Privy Seal . The Lord President usually attends and is responsible of presiding over meetings of the Privy Council , presenting business for the monarch ' s approval . In the modern era , the holder is by convention always a member of one of the houses of Parliament and the office is a Cabinet post . The Lord President is currently David Lidington as of 14 July 2016 . David Roy Lidington ( born 30 June 1956 ) is a British ___MASK79___ politician who has been the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Aylesbury since 1992 and the Leader of the House of Commons since July 2016 . Previously he was Minister of State for Europe from May 2010 to July 2016 , the longest - serving Europe Minister in British history . Theresa Mary May , ( born 1 October 1956 ) is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the ___MASK79___ , having served as both since July 2016 . She has been the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Maidenhead since 1997 . May identifies as a one - nation conservative and has been characterised as a liberal conservative . She is the second female Prime Minister and ___MASK79___ leader after Margaret Thatcher . The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , commonly known as the United Kingdom ( UK ) or Britain , is a sovereign country in western Europe . Lying off the north - western coast of the European mainland , it includes the island of Great Britain ( the name of which is also loosely applied to the whole country ), the north - eastern part of the island of Ireland , and many smaller islands . Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign statethe ___MASK81___ of Ireland . Apart from this land border , the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean , with the North Sea to its east , the English Channel to its south and the Celtic Sea to its south - south - west , giving it the 12th - longest coastline in the world . The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland . With an area of , the UK is the 78th - largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th - largest in Europe . It is also the 21st - most populous country , with an estimated 65 . 1 million inhabitants . Together , this makes it the fourth most densely populated country in the European ___MASK85___ .