Has this happened before?

[mikechandler]

When, not if, Gordon Brown stands down and a new leader is elected, would that be the first time that there have been 3 different Prime Ministers between General Elections?

[ninja-lewis]

mikechandler said:

When, not if, Gordon Brown stands down and a new leader is elected, would that be the first time that there have been 3 different Prime Ministers between General Elections?

It would actually be the fifth time since 1802 (first election to Parliament of the United Kingdom).

The following is a list of periods where 2 or more Prime Ministers (including when it used to be First Lord of the Treasury) served between elections. Some of them were part of wartime national goverments while others were a result of ministers retiring. As you can see there were two periods where there were 4 (yes four) prime ministers between elections.

1802-1806
Addington
Pitt the Younger
The Lord Grenville

1806-1807
The lord Grenville
The Duke of Portland

1807-1812
The Duke of Portland
Perceval
The Earl of Liverpool

1826-1830
The Earl of Liverpool
Canning
The Viscount Goderich
The Duke of Wellington

1830-1831
The Duke of Wellington
The Earl Grey

1832-1835
The Earl Grey
The Viscount Melbourne
The Duke of Wellington
Peel

1835-1837
Peel
The Viscount Melbourne

1852-1857
The Earl of Derby
The Earl of Aberdeen

1865-1868
The Earl Russell
The Earl of Derby
Benjamin Disraeli

1885-1886
The Marquess of Salisbury
Gladstone

1892-1895
Gladstone
Earl of Roseberry

1900-1906
The Marquess of Salisbury
Balfour

1906-1910
Campbell-Bannerman
Asquith

1910-1922
Asquith
Lloyd George

1935-1945
Baldwin
Chamberlain
Churchill

1955-1959
Eden
Macmillan

1959-1964
Macmillan
Douglas-Home

1974-1979
Wilson
Callaghan

If you go further back to the Parliament of Great Britain (between 1721-1802), there were:

1741-1747
Walpole
Compton
Pelham

1754-1761
Pelham-Holles
Cavendish
Duke of Newcastle

1761-1768
Duke of Newcastle
Stuart
Grenville
Watson-Wentworth
Pitt

1768-1774
Fitzroy
North

1780-1784
North
Marquess of Rockingham
Petty
Cavendish-Bentinck
Pitt the Younger

1796-1802
Pitt the Younger
Addington

[Poledriver]

There's a lot of pubs on that list!