John Smith (Labour Party leader) offer of the office of Solicitor General for Scotland, not wishing his political career to become sidelined as a law officer. In October, he was made an Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Energy. In December 1975, he was made a Minister of State. Smith supported James Callaghan in the Labour Party leadership election after Wilson resigned in April 1976. When Callaghan became Prime Minister, Smith became a Minister of State at the Privy Council Office, serving with Labour's Deputy leader, Michael Foot, the Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons. In this position,
Leader of the Labour Party (UK) became the first Leader of the Labour Party to have been born in England; prior to this, all party leaders had been born in Scotland. In 1924, Ramsay MacDonald became the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority administration which lasted nine months. Clement Attlee would become the first Labour leader to lead a majority government in 1945. The first to be born in Wales was Neil Kinnock, who was elected in 1983. The most electorally successful Leaders of the Labour Party to date are: Tony Blair, who won three consecutive electoral victories in 1997, 2001 (both landslide victories),