Prime Ministers with the Most Difficult Christmas Days in History
Historian Dan Snow analyzes prime ministers who experienced notably difficult Christmases on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast. Lord North, who served as Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782, faced a miserable Christmas after the Yorktown defeat in November 1781 and left office weeks after in February 1782. Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister from December 1827 to January 1828, was unnerved by his wife's mental health crisis over Christmas and resigned after just 144 days in office. Stanley Baldwin called a December 1923 general election to seek a mandate, but after his tariff plan failed, he lost his majority and resigned in January following the election. Winston Churchill, during Christmas 1941, had an incident with Franklin D. Roosevelt and struggled with heart issues. Anthony Eden, Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957, lied to Parliament on 20 December 1956 about the Suez Crisis, was feverish over Christmas, and resigned on 9 January 1957. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, spent Christmas 2008 stabilizing the financial system; a Boxing Day headline about a plot to oust him underscored a rocky period. The article frames Churchill as the dominant figure in the history of disappointing Christmases for UK prime ministers.
