Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith,, generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last Liberal Party prime minister to command a majority government, and the most recent Liberal to have served as Leader of the Opposition. He played a major role in the design and passage of major liberal legislation and a reduction of the power of the House of Lords. In August 1914, Asquith took Great Britain and the British Empire into the First World War. During 1915, his government was vigorously attacked for a shortage of munitions and the failure of the Gallipoli Campaign. He formed a coalition government with other parties but failed to satisfy critics, was forced to resign in December 1916 and never regained power.
Asquith c. 1910s
Asquith (left) with his sister Emily and elder brother William, c. 1857
Asquith in 1876
Asquith, caricatured by Spy, in Vanity Fair, 1891
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern prime ministers hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons, they sit as members of Parliament. The current prime minister is Rishi Sunak of the Conservative Party, who assumed the office on 25 October 2022.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Sir Robert Walpole is generally considered to have been the first person to hold the position of Prime Minister.
Dominic Raab was the First Secretary of State from 2019 to 2021. He deputised for Boris Johnson when he was ill with COVID-19 in April 2020.
Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation outside 10 Downing Street, 20 October 2022