Denis Thatcher 1979 general election to become the first female Prime Minister in British history. Denis Thatcher became the first husband of a British Prime Minister. In 1953, they had twin children (Carol and Mark), who were born on 15 August, seven weeks premature. Thatcher was watching the 1953 Ashes series at the time of the birth. Not long after the 1964 general election, Denis Thatcher suffered a nervous breakdown which put a severe strain on their marriage. The breakdown was probably caused by the increasing pressure of running the family business, caring for his relatives, and his wife's preoccupation with her
Historical rankings of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom using a 0 to 10 scale, where 0 meant highly unsuccessful and 10 meant highly successful. Overall, MPs rated Margaret Thatcher as the most successful post-war Prime Minister, just ahead of Clement Attlee. With the exception of Edward Heath, who was judged more favourably by Labour MPs than by Conservatives, evaluations were split along party lines: Tory MPs tended to consider Conservative prime ministers to be more successful than did Labour MPs, and Labour MPs generally gave Labour prime ministers higher scores than did Conservative MPs. In October 2016 the University of Leeds, in conjunction with Woodnewton Associates, surveyed 82