Ramsay MacDonald, Scottish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1866)

James Ramsay MacDonald was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party, where he led a minority Labour government for nine months in 1924 and again between 1929 and 1931. In 1931, MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party, after he formed a National Government dominated by the Conservative Party and supported by only a few Labour members, his premiership of which lasted until 1935.

The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern prime ministers hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons, so they are invariably members of Parliament.