00:04With the resignation of Keir Starmer, the UK is set to have its 7th Prime Minister in 10 years.
00:11Once touted for its ability to produce stable and long-lasting governments compared to other European countries,
00:17the UK now finds itself at the centre of online claims that it's ungovernable
00:22and that it has the highest leader turnover rate on the continent.
00:26Others say that other countries are worse, alleging that they've had even more Prime Ministers specifically in the same time
00:32period.
00:33But which of these claims are true?
00:35How does the UK compare in the number of leaders it's had between 2016 and 2026?
00:40For as fair a comparison as possible, we matched UK Prime Ministers against European Council members
00:46who have held executive power in each EU nation over the past 10 years.
00:50Bulgaria is top of the leaderboard, coming in with 10 unique leaders between 2016 and 2026,
00:57followed by the UK and Austria at 7, with the new British PM factored in.
01:02Of course, it's worth noting that different countries have different systems of government
01:05and leaders across the continent enter office in different ways,
01:09which is why we can't just compare European Prime Ministers as some posts suggest.
01:13For example, France has both a President, who holds executive power and is voted for directly,
01:19and a Prime Minister, who's appointed by the President.
01:22The British Prime Minister, meanwhile, is the leader of the party that commands a majority in Parliament,
01:28traditionally after a general election.
01:30If the party wants to change leadership, they don't need to hold another general election.
01:34The new leader just slots into the role of Prime Minister.
01:37France has indeed had its own revolving door of Prime Ministers in recent years,
01:41having had nine since 2016.
01:44But this just highlights that the Office of Prime Minister functions differently across the continent
01:48and can't always be accurately compared.
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