Prime Minister of the United Kingdom retirement from the Commons, which elevates the individual to the House of Lords. Formerly, the peerage bestowed was usually an earldom, with Churchill offered a dukedom. From the 1960s onward, life peerages were preferred, although in 1984 Harold Macmillan was created Earl of Stockton. Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher accepted life peerages, although Douglas-Home had previously disclaimed his hereditary title as Earl of Home. Edward Heath did not accept a peerage of any kind and nor have any of the Prime Ministers to retire since 1990; although Heath and Major were later appointed as Knights
2016 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours 2016 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours The 2016 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours are honours awarded following the July 2016 resignation of the Prime Minister, David Cameron. The life peerages and other honours were issued as two separate lists by the Cabinet Office on 4 August 2016 and all honours were gazetted as one list on 16 August 2016. This was the first Prime Minister's Resignation Honours since 1997. On 22 July 2016, it was alleged that officials in the Cabinet Office and the House of Lords Appointments Commission had blocked the list, citing ethical concerns about some of the intended recipients