The writer is a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London
Everyone my age can remember where they were on November 22 1990, when Margaret Thatcher announced she would resign. I was a student, beavering away on an essay, when someone stuck their head around the door and shouted, “She’s gone!” before running off to spread the news more widely. Five days later, John Major topped the ballot of Conservative MPs. He became prime minister the following day, November 28.
Six days. By the standards of 20th century Britain, that was relatively long. In the preceding 90 years, the median length of time it took to change prime ministers midterm — from the announcement of the resignation of the incumbent to the new prime minister kissing hands at Buckingham Palace — was a single day. We don’t traditionally do long transitions. A defining image of British electoral politics is the removal van, parked up in Downing Street the day after a general election, ready to cart off the defeated prime minister’s belongings.