To date (February 2022), which is the only British Prime Minister to have completed a PhD?

In the United Kingdom the prime minister (PM) is not normally selected on the grounds of academic brilliance, although some PMs do have scholarly credentials. For example, Margaret Thatcher (PM from 1979 to 1990) took a degree in chemistry, specialising in X-ray crystallography, went on to become a research chemist and qualified as a barrister; Harold Wilson (PM 1964-1970 and 1974-1976) graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics with an outstanding first-class degree, and received a series of major academic awards; H. H. Asquith (PM from 1905 to 1908) had a distinguished university career and qualified as a barrister; all of them graduated from the University of Oxford.

However, the academic star among British Prime Ministers was not an Oxford graduate. James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) was PM and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Blair government from 1997 to 2007. Brown was a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 2015, first for Dunfermline East and later for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Brown was accepted by the University of Edinburgh to study history at the early age of 16. He graduated from Edinburgh having earned an undergraduate MA degree with First-Class Honours in history in 1972. He stayed on to obtain his PhD degree in history, which he gained ten years later in 1982, defending a thesis titled “The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918–29.