British Prime Minister in 1996

Prime Minister
Biographical information
Blood status	Muggle
Title(s)	Prime Minister
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Family information
Family members	Niece
Affiliation
Occupation	Prime Minister of United Kingdom
Loyalty	Great Britain British government Muggle community

Prime Minister: "But you're wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out - well - anything!"

Cornelius Fudge: "The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister."

— The Prime Minister and Cornelius Fudge

The Prime Minister of the Muggle Community of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, usually just referred to as the Prime Minister, is leader of the British Muggle Community and Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and their Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior ministers, who are government department heads) are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to the electorate.

The British Prime Minister was traditionally informed of the existence of the wizarding world on the night of their inauguration and was occasionally visited by their wizard counterpart, the Minister for Magic, over affairs that would have an impact on the Muggle world, such as the escape of Sirius Black, the mass breakout from Azkaban, and the return of Lord Voldemort. The secrecy of the wizarding world is maintained in that, in the event that the Prime Minister were to tell anyone of their meetings with the wizards, it is hardly likely that they would be believed by anyone.

Biography

Rise to power and meeting with the "Other Minister"

Cornelius Fudge: "The Minister of Magic only reveals him--or herself to the Muggle Prime Minister of the day. We find it the best way to maintain secrecy."

Prime Minister: ""But then, why hasn't a former Prime Minister warned me?"

Cornelius Fudge: "My dear Prime Minister, are you ever going to tell anybody?"

— The Prime Minister and Cornelius Fudge

When the Prime Minister rose to his position, he was greeted by the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who told him about the world of magic. The Muggle Minister was actually better at accepting this than his predecessor, who thought Fudge was an attempt to sabotage the Prime Minister's career, and tried to throw the wizard out the window. The Prime Minister then tried to pretend none of this had happened. Despite Fudge's claim that they would probably never meet again after the first introduction, circumstances, essentially all the Dark activities of the wizarding world, colluded to render this statement invalid, much to the Prime Minister's discomfort.

In 1993, Fudge met with the Prime Minister to inform him of the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban. Due to the fact that Black was convicted of murdering 12 Muggles, along with Pettigrew, and was thus a severe threat to both communities, Fudge felt that it was important that the Muggle Prime Minister be informed.

In 1994, Fudge met with the Prime Minster to discuss the events of the Quidditch World Cup, where several Muggles had been tortured by Death Eaters, but declared that everything was fine and was being dealt with (i.e. covered up). He also informed the Prime Minister that they would be bringing three dragons and a sphinx into the country, and as they were classified as highly dangerous creatures, it was in the rules that the Muggle Prime Minister had to be informed.

The Daily Prophet reports Scrimgeour's meeting with the Prime Minister.

Early in 1996, Fudge met with the Minister to inform him of the mass breakout from Azkaban. Then, later in 1996, the Prime Minister was under pressure after the collapse of the Brockdale Bridge, a hurricane that had devastated parts of the South-West of England, and two highly publicised murders one of which had taken place around the corner from 10 Downing Street. He was informed by the former Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge that Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters were responsible for these events. They also told him that his Junior Minister, Herbert Chorley, had been put under a poorly cast Imperius Curse, which was the real reason he had been acting like a duck, and that he was being transferred to St. Mungo's. Fudge also informed him that his new secretary, Kingsley Shacklebolt, was a highly skilled Auror and introduced him to his own replacement as Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour.

Early in 1997, Scrimgeour met with the Prime Minister to inform him about the terror and all the deaths, including a Muggle family; this meeting was briefly mentioned in the Daily Prophet.

His fate following the Second Wizarding War is unknown.

The enchanted portrait

This is placed on the wall in Prime Minister's office. Its purpose is to inform the Prime Minister of the imminent arrival of the Minister for Magic. It is described as being an ugly man who occasionally yawns or scratches his nose. Muggles have tried and failed to remove it from the wall. Among the various people who have tried were: an art historian, a builder, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The most likely explanation is that the portrait was affixed to the wall with a Permanent Sticking Charm, which would explain why all attempts to remove it have failed.

Behind the scenes

• The Prime Minister is never named in the series, but since the Harry Potter series is set mostly in the 1990's he is most likely Sir John Major, the Prime Minister of Britain from 1990-1997. However during the last half of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, there was a change of government in Britain and Tony Blair became Prime Minister, serving from 1997-2007.
• If that is the case, then Margaret Thatcher would have been Prime Minister when Cornelius Fudge was nearly thrown out the window. However, Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister for eleven years by the time Fudge became Minister for Magic, and wouldn't be as likely to become enraged as she would have met at least two other Ministers for Magic during her time in office. Additionally, Fudge refers to the Prime Minister's predecessor as he, which rules out Thatcher.
• It is possible that Cornelius Fudge lied to the Prime Minister when he described his predecessor's attitude, as an attempt to restore some of the Prime Minister's confidence. Fudge may have been unaware that the predecessor was female, since he only became Minister for Magic the year Sir John Major became Prime Minister.
• Winston Churchill was the UK Prime Minister during Grindelwald's reign of terror in the 1940s, and would have had to cope with that while presiding over the largest Muggle war in history.
• Supposing that the liaison between the Minister for Magic and the Muggle Prime Minister has been the way we know since the Ministry's inception, and supposing that the Muggle Prime Ministers in the Harry Potter universe are all the same as their real-life counterparts, then the following table illustrates the Ministers for Magic that would have introduced themselves to the respective Prime Ministers:

Minister for Magic (term of office)	Prime Minister (term of office)
Artemisia Lufkin 1798 to 1811	William Pitt the Younger 1783 to 1801
	Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth 1801 to 1804
	William Pitt the Younger 1804 to 1806
	William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville 1806 to 1807
	William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland 1807 to 1809
	Spencer Perceval 1809 to 1812
Grogan Stump 1811 to 1819	Spencer Perceval 1809 to 1812
	Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool 1812 to 1827
Evangeline Orpington 1849 to 1855	John Russell, 1st Earl Russell 1846 to 1852
	Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby 1852
	George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen 1852 to 1855
Faris "Spout-Hole" Spavin 1865 to 1903	John Russell, 1st Earl Russell 1865 to 1866
	Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby 1866 to 1868
	Benjamin Disraeli 1868
	William Ewart Gladstone 1868 to 1874
	Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield 1874 to 1880
	William Ewart Gladstone 1880 to 1885
	Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury 1885 to 1886
	William Ewart Gladstone 1886
	Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury 1886 to 1892
	William Ewart Gladstone 1892 to 1894
	Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery 1894 to 1895
	Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury 1895 to 1902
	Arthur James Balfour 1902 to 1905
Nobby Leach 1962 to 1968	Maurice Harold Macmillan 1957 to 1963
	Sir Alec Douglas-Home 1963 to 1964
	James Harold Wilson 1964 to 1970
Millicent Bagnold 1980 to 1990	Margaret Thatcher 1979 to 1990
Cornelius Fudge 1990 to 1996	Sir John Major 1990 to 1997
Rufus Scrimgeour 1996 to 1997	Sir John Major 1990 to 1997
	Tony Blair 1997 to 2007
Pius Thicknesse 1997 to 1998	Tony Blair 1997 to 2007
Kingsley Shacklebolt 1998 to present	Tony Blair 1997 to 2007
	James Gordon Brown 2007 to 2010
	David Cameron 2010 to present

• Given that the Harry Potter series is fictional, it is entirely possible that this Prime Minister, and thus the previous Prime Minister as well, are none of the real life Prime Ministers of Great Britain, but entirely fictional ones with different names and identities. As Britain has, to date, had but one female Prime Minister, the pronoun "she" would be rather conclusive as to identity in the Muggle world.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (First mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Mentioned only)
• The Queen's Handbag (Mentioned only)