Prime Minister of the United Kingdom seats than the opposition in a general election. Since 1722, most Prime Ministers have been members of the Commons; since 1902, all have had a seat there. Like other members, they are elected initially to represent only a constituency. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, for example, represented Sedgefield in County Durham from 1983 to 2007. He became Prime Minister because in 1994 he was elected Labour Party leader and then led the party to victory in the 1997 general election, winning 418 seats compared to 165 for the Conservatives and gaining a majority in the House of Commons. Neither the
Woodford (UK Parliament constituency) Woodford (UK Parliament constituency) Woodford was a parliamentary constituency in Essex which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1945 until it was renamed for the 1964 general election. The constituency's only Member of Parliament for its entire existence was Sir Winston Churchill of the Conservative Party; from 1924 he had represented the Epping constituency from which Woodford was created. He represented the Woodford seat during his second tenure as Prime Minister, and continued to hold it until he retired aged 89 at the 1964 general election; it was