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by onion2k 19 days ago
You also have to be an MP.

I don't think that's strictly true. You definitely don't have to be an MP in order to hold a cabinet office. I think that extends to the PM as well. It's never been tried obviously.
2 comments
swiftcoder 19 days ago
It's not strictly law, but at this point it might as well be. The last PM to be appointed without being an MP was Sir Alec Douglas-Home in the 1960s, and he immediately resigned his peerage and won a by-election to remedy that...
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pasc1878 19 days ago
It has been tried but long ago.

The last member of the House of Lords to be PM was Lord Salisbury in 1900.

As noted Alec Douglas-Hume had to leave the House of Lords in 1963 and get elected as a MP.

The previous attempt would have been Lord Halifax in 1940 but by then it was clear the PM had to be from the Commons.

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