Years in Parliament until they became PM

When looking at the weekend at the lengths of terms for party leaders, also had a look at how many years it took for an MP to become Prime . The results are below:

  1. John Key 6 years
  2. David Lange 7 years
  3. Jenny Shipley 10 years
  4. 10 years
  5. Bill Rowling 12 years
  6. 12 years
  7. Richard Seddon 14 years
  8. Sid Holland 14 years
  9. Gordon Coates 14 years
  10. Robert Muldoon 15 years
  11. Norman Kirk 15 years
  12. William Hall-Jones 16 years
  13. Michael Joseph Savage 16 years
  14. 18 years
  15. William Massey 18 years
  16. Helen Clark 18 years
  17. Joseph Ward 19 years
  18. George Forbes 22 years
  19. Peter Fraser 22 years
  20. 25 years
  21. Thomas Mackenzie 25 years
  22. Jack Marshall 25 years
  23. 28 years
  24. Francis Bell 32 years

I've only included Prime , not Premiers.

It is interesting the fastest six are all from the modern era, and before that the fastest riser was Seddon. I'm not sure anyone will ever beat John Key's record of six years.

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