Margaret Thatcher voted top Prime Minister on 40th anniversary of her first election win
Margaret Thatcher has been ranked as the UK’s greatest post-war Prime Minister in a survey marking the 40th anniversary of her first election victory.
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A Yougov poll placed Thatcher top of the pile, with 21 per cent of respondents saying she was the greatest Prime Minister since 1945.
Sir Winston Churchill finished second on 19 per cent, while Tony Blair was a long way behind in third place with just six per cent support.
When it comes to Thatcher’s legacy, 38 per cent of Brits believe the UK’s first female Prime Minister left the UK better off, with 28 per cent saying her 11-year tenure made the country worse off.
In a reflection on the current crop of politicians, more than half of Britons, some 59 per cent, think that Thatcher would do a better job of negotiating Brexit – while only six per cent said she would do a worse job.
Thatcher won the 1979 election with a majority of 43, defeating Labour incumbent James Callaghan.
Dubbed the ‘Iron Lady’, Thatcher went on to win two more general elections, in 1983 and 1987, before being ousted by her own Cabinet in 1990 for her hostility to the European project and the disastrous roll out of the poll tax.
The greatest Prime Ministers since 1945 according to a Yougov survey:
| Margaret Thatcher | 21 per cent |
| Winston Churchill | 19 per cent |
| Tony Blair | 6 per cent |
| Clement Attlee | 5 per cent |
| Harold Wilson | 4 per cent |
| John Major | 2 per cent |
| David Cameron | 2 per cent |
| Harold Macmillan | 1 per cent |
| Gordon Brown | 1 per cent |
| Anthony Eden | 0 per cent |
| Alec Douglas-Home | 0 per cent |
| Edward Heath | 0 per cent |
| Jim Callaghan | 0 per cent |
| Theresa May | 0 per cent |
Survey based on 1,630 Adults, carried out between 29-30 April 2019.
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