Where are the UK’s former prime ministers now?

Boris Johnson will this week vacate Downing Street, becoming the sixth living former British prime minister.

While the departing Conservative leader will for the time stay on as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, history suggests that may not be for long.

Apart from Theresa May, who remains MP for Maidenhead to this day, all of his other predecessors – David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major – had stepped down by the next general election after they left No 10.

Here we take a look at what followed.

Theresa May (prime minister 2016-2019)

Ms May has remained a scowling presence in the House of Commons since moving out of Downing Street, where her taste in John Lewis home furnishings was famously derided by Carrie Johnson.

She has clearly greatly enjoyed watching her successor’s downfall, however, dining out at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on the night Mr Johnson’s scandal-mired premiership began to collapse under a deluge of resignations led by health secretary Sajid Javid and chancellor Rishi Sunak.

She was subsequently spotted raving at a Craig David gig at Henley Festival in Oxfordshire two days later, apparently celebrating Mr Johnson’s defenestration.

David Cameron (prime minister 2010-2016)

The man many people blame for Brexit has, perhaps wisely, largely kept a low profile since resigning, after calling the referendum and presiding over a losing campaign to keep the UK in the European Union.

His memoirs – entitled For the Record and written in a £25,000 designer shed installed in his Cotswolds garden – were published in September 2019.

In a rare interview earlier that year, Mr Cameron insisted he did not regret calling the referendum and told the BBC he hoped – in vain, as it turned out – MPs would “come together” to support Ms May’s withdrawal agreement.

Mr Cameron has knocked back suggestions he is hankering for a return to frontline politics, but he has not ruled out a role in public service. He remains relatively young at 52 and has been described by one friend as “bored s***less” by life after Westminster.

In 2022, he has faced difficult questions about government lobbying over his role in the Greensill affair, worked in a Chipping Norton food bank and even drove emergency humanitarian aid to war-stricken Ukraine.

Gordon Brown (2007-2010)

After being forced out of No 10 following Labour’s defeat in the 2010 election, Mr Brown remained in the Commons for another five years as MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

He proved to be a pivotal figure in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, with his intervention and promise of further devolution to Holyrood seen as influential in securing a No vote.

But his attempt to repeat the trick with the struggling Remain campaign ahead of the EU vote two years later proved unsuccessful.

Mr Brown has remained vocal on both the UK union and Brexit. In September 2019, he announced plans for a think-tank to make a “positive, patriotic and progressive case for the union”, which he warned would be at renewed risk under Mr Johnson’s premiership (rightly, as it turned out).

More recently, he appealed for an early end to the protracted Conservative leadership contest eventually won by Ms Truss so that the “zombie government” under Mr Johnson could get on with addressing an urgent cost of living crisis.

His sage appeal to reason was, naturally, unsuccessful.

Tony Blair (1997-2007)

The former Labour leader promptly stepped away from Westminster entirely after standing down as prime minister.

He was appointed special envoy to the Middle East on the day he handed the keys to No 10 to Mr Brown and remained in that role until 2015.

Mr Blair has also enjoyed lucrative work in lobbying, consultancy and lecturing since quitting politics – and reportedly made millions advising foreign governments and the investment bank JP Morgan.

The UK’s vote to leave the EU, however, lured him back into the political conversation. He has been an outspoken critic of Brexit and backed calls for a second referendum on the final withdrawal deal.

He continues to pipe up at regular intervals with suggestions for how to tackle the many problems of the day.

John Major (1990-1997)

The former Tory has kept a relatively low profile since departing No 10, focusing on his business interests, charity work and writing.

As well as his memoirs, he has authored books about cricket and his father’s life as a music hall artist.

But, as with Mr Blair, Brexit seems to have reignited a political fire in Mr Major.

In one extraordinary intervention, he vowed to take Mr Johnson to court if he attempted to suspend parliament to take the UK out of the EU and has remained a persistent critic of the outgoing Bullingdon veteran ever since.