Margaret Thatcher quote: “The star of that year's conference was undoubtedly the Swedish conservative leader—since Prime Minister

“Interviewer: Prime Minister, it's 6 years, since the war, and there is still no investigation.”

Ranil Wickremesinghe (1949) Former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

“I can stand here today, leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister, and say to the British people: you have never had it so … prudent.”

Tony Blair (1953) former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Tony Blair's speech in full http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/460009.stm, BBC News online
Speech to the Labour Party conference, 28 September 1999, paraphrasing Harold Macmillan's statement "most of our people have never had it so good" and comparing with Gordon Brown's frequent use of the word "prudent".
1990s

“There are lots of other folk, including in the Cabinet who could easily be prime minister, I am not one of them. I could not be prime minister, I am not equipped to be prime minister, I don’t want to be prime minister.”

Michael Gove (1967) British politician

Speaking on The World at One radio programme (2012)
2012

“I have been a Member of Parliament for 18 years. I have been a member of the Government for 14 years, of the Cabinet for ten years and Prime Minister since 1990. When the curtain falls it is time to get off the stage and that is what I propose to do. I shall, therefore, advise my parliamentary colleagues that it would be appropriate for them to consider the selection of a new leader of the Conservative Party to lead the party through Opposition through the years that lie immediately ahead.”

John Major (1943) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

"Major's Speech", The Times, 3 May 1997, p. 2.
Statement in Downing Street on 2 May 1997 following the general election in which the Conservative Party was heavily defeated. Major was just about to resign as Prime Minister and announced his decision to stand down as party leader simultaneously.
1990s, 1997

“Capable of becoming either Conservative or Labour Prime Minister.”

Oswald Mosley (1896–1980) British politician; founder of the British Union of Fascists

Richard Crossman, New Statesman (27 October 1961).

“It is not normal for a Deputy Prime Minister to end up running a Prime Minister's diary, chairing staff meetings. It's not normal for a Deputy Prime Minister to be trying to manage so that quality speeches are given.”

Julia Gillard (1961) Australian politician and lawyer, 27th Prime Minister of Australia

The Killing Season, Episode two: Great Moral Challenge (2009–10)

“"You must tell them that there must be a new union or there will be chaos," he [Shevardnadze] implored me. That evening, when I hosted republic leaders for dinner — a mixed group of presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers — I saw around the table and in the conversation a microcosm of the post-coup Soviet Union’s potential — and its problems. Whatever euphoria that they felt with their post-putsch independence declarations had given way to a marked degree of realism. "Independence sounds nice, but we have to live, and we have to be practical," observed the Prime Minister of Moldova, Valeriu Muravsky. That was the persistent theme that I heard from every one of the republic leaders, with the sole exception of the Georgian Prime Minister, Vissarion Gugushvili, though even he spoke of the need for economic cooperation once Georgian independence was recognized internationally.”

James Baker (1930) Former U.S. Secretary of State

The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace 1989-1992 (1995) by James Addison Baker, p. 531
1995

“"You must tell them that there must be a new union or there will be chaos," he [Shevardnadze] implored me. That evening, when I hosted republic leaders for dinner — a mixed group of presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers — I saw around the table and in the conversation a microcosm of the post-coup Soviet Union’s potential — and its problems. Whatever euphoria that they felt with their post-putsch independence declarations had given way to a marked degree of realism. "Independence sounds nice, but we have to live, and we have to be practical," observed the Prime Minister of Moldova, Valeriu Muravsky. That was the persistent theme that I heard from every one of the republic leaders, with the sole exception of the Georgian Prime Minister, Vissarion Gugushvili, though even he spoke of the need for economic cooperation once Georgian independence was recognized internationally.”

James Baker (1930) Former U.S. Secretary of State

The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace 1989-1992 (1995) by James Addison Baker, p. 531
1990s

“I look around this room and see a room full of senators, maybe one or two judges. A Conservative government will give jobs to people in other parties only after I've been prime minister for fifteen years and can't find a single living, breathing Tory to appoint.”

Brian Mulroney (1939) 18th Prime Minister of Canada

(1983) [Newman, Peter, The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister, 2005, Random House Canada, Toronto, 0-679-31351-6], p. 94.

“Laisenia Qarase, Prime Minister since 2000”

Mahendra Chaudhry (1942) Fijian politician

Context: Laisenia Qarase, Prime Minister since 2000: "(These protests) are led by a man who has been convicted by the Suva magistrate’s court for causing the death of a person. Mr Chaudhry himself was convicted sometime back for manslaughter and he was released from prison only three days after serving his sentence on a CSO (Compulsory Supervision Order)." (accusing Chaudhry of hypocrisy for campaigning against the early release of politicians jailed for their part in the 2000 coup).

“The star of that year's conference was undoubtedly the Swedish conservative leader—since Prime Minister—who delivered a speech of such startling Thatcherite soundness that in applauding I felt as if I was giving myself a standing ovation.”

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