Best Prime Minister in your opinion.

From your OP, presumably you think Thatcher was a good PM. The thing is, as leader of the opposition and in her early days as PM, she was nothing like the bold persona she came to be by the end. She developed and grew into the role as she went along.

Good PMs only appear like that when they've been tried and tested. Johnson quite categorically didn't shine in the test of COVID. Sunak hasn't really had any events to grapple with that would have given him the opportunity to show himself as a sterling leader (I imagine he'd be shit, but he's not had the chance).

I'm absolutely longing for a leader who is serious and prepared to talk about issues in depth rather than soundbites, and who isn't just gaming the whole time because of party factions. Politics seems like nasty toxic shit right now. I'm hoping Starmer will turn it around and bring the grown ups back in again.

I think Theresa May is undervalued too, her leadership was basically like a Bucking Bronco game but she seemed to have some core values and commitment even if I thought quite a lot of her policies were horrible.

Looking back I think John Major was a very underrated PM.

Tonia Antoniazzi would be my ideal.

I'm with previous posters and would like Paul Edington, if I can't have Jim then I will be happy with Kier Starmer but would also be happy with Yvette Cooper.

Yvette Cooper, Rory Stewart, and I still wonder what might have been if Labour had gone with the other Milliband brother.

In my lifetime, Blair pre-Iraq and Brown are hard to beat for progressive achievement. John Smith is the great unknown lost to history. I do wonder how every PM since Thatcher would have coped if she hadn't been there first - I can't see how Labour (New or otherwise) would have addressed the challenges of climate change unless the extractive industries and heavy industry hadn't already been decimated in favour of a service economy and advanced technology/manufacturing.

And it has to be said that he and the other Remainer Tory MPs made a pig's ear of responding to Brexit. They were totally outplayed by the Brexiters.

I don't care how many languages you can speak, if you can be outwitted by Mark Francois and Nadine Dorries, the chances are that you are not a political mastermind.

Definitely Andy Burnham. I hope he stands in the next General Election.

he left politics because it was affecting his mental health/physical health.

Stewart left politics when he realised he was never going to become leader of the Tory party. He isn’t the first politician to do that (eg David Miliband) but that’s the truth.

Thatcher was a disaster for the UK largely because she increased inequality but Blair I'll agree on.

Andy Burnham

Big fab of Yvette Cooper.

Andy Street

100% this.

In my lifetime there have been two prime ministers who've actually had vision and the ability to lead others to see it, and who've made arguments for policies which they believed would improve people's lives. Tony Blair is one and while I certainly didn't agree with everything he did, his broad aims to modernise and make the country fairer and more prosperous I did agree with. (The other PM who actually made a case for her own vision was Thatcher, with whom I completely disagree on almost everything, but acknowledge she was an effective leader.)

The rest have merely treated running the country a bit like trying to stay on top of a bucking bronco- no effort made to make a case for something better, only to stay PM by following public opinion instead of leading it.

Most underrated PM- Theresa May. Again I largely disagree with her on almost everything but imagine if we'd had her in charge during the pandemic rather than Boris.

Theresa May and agree with others, having seen her speak Kemi Badenoch

Ben Wallace.

And no longer alive but John Smith.

I think it's time Labour had a female leader and I would put Yvette Cooper up as a good candidate. She puts in the wirk and stands up in the HoC with evidence based argements.

I don't rate Starmer, his policies sound great but lack details. He's quite woolly with the facts. I don't think Burnham is up to the task. He's a great mayor, did a fab job sticking up for Manchester during the Pandemic, but PM? I can't see it.

For the Tories I think Kemi Badenoch would be a good PM. She's not interested in bulls**t and it's evident she reads a lot about her brief. If she were PM she would actually read her papers unlike Boris who couldn't be arsed and look where that got the country.

I've always thought Rory Stewart was the archetypal Tory prig but he knows his onions. I'm glad he went down the publishing/media route actually because his stories of Afghanistan are very insightful. PM? I don't know? I think he might've been out of his depth.

I'm pretty sure that someone who spent two years walking solo across Asia (including Iran and Afghanistan) and speaks 11 languages, connecting with people from completely different cultures to his own, will be able to understand the lives of working class Brits.

I don't mind Yvette Cooper. Or Chris Murphy.

Yvette Cooper - hardworking , tough, sensible and does live in the real world. also has experience of government. Just some people who actually care about normal individuals would be nice and some honesty and integrity- this is sadly lacking in all Tory ministers at the moment!

Oh bless. Is that you, Jezzer?

Jeremy Corbyn

On the contrary, this is classic posh boy. They often combine hardiness with breathtaking self-confidence and - crucially - the funds to take a year off to tramp around central Asia assuming he wasn't being paid by the SIS, of course. Most famous explorers/adventurers - Ranulph Fiennes, Bear Grylls etc - are exactly in this mould.

Anyone who utters the phrase 'let me be clear' should be instantly barred from politics.

If only Tim Farron wasn't quite so religious I reckon he could have made a decent stab at the job if he wasn't a Lib Dem.

loving the support for Rory Stewart on here. maybe there is hope after all. to the naysayers - he walked across Europe and large swathes of Asia. he lived in an afghani village for quite a few months. I don't think a typical 'posh boy' could have managed that.

he left politics because it was affecting his mental health/physical health. maybe there is more of a backstory, but maybe not. he is an intelligent and learned man, and sadly he doesn't have the right personality type to engage with the average voter so his learning comes across as smug. but I don't think he is. he is not salt of the earth for sure.

I don't particularly want the PM to have charisma. I just want them to be intelligent, pragmatic and to sit somewhere to the left of the current Tory party (not difficult).

Keir Starmer will be fine. He'll choose a decent Cabinet made up of decent people.

Rory Tory Stewart! This country would be better if he had been chosen.