Upon assuming office, Eden asked Queen Elizabeth II to dissolve parliament and called a general election for May 1955.

[1] After winning the general election with a majority of 60 seats in the House of Commons, Eden governed until his resignation on 10 January 1957.

[2] In April 1955, Sir Anthony Eden succeeded Winston Churchill as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and finally reached the post he had coveted for so long.

Eden was succeeded as foreign secretary by future prime minister Harold Macmillan, who, however, only held this post until December of the same year, when he replaced Butler as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Eden's decision to take military action over the Suez Crisis of 1956 caused major embarrassment for Britain and their French allies.