List of United Kingdom Liberal Party Leaders

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The Liberal Party was formally established in 1859 and continued to exist until it merged with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to create the Liberal Democrats. This article provides a List of United Kingdom Liberal Party Leaders.

1 Leadership selection 1859-1969
2 Leadership selection 1969-1988
3 Lists of Liberal Party Leaders
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Leadership selection 1859-1969

Before the adoption of the 1969 constitution of the party there was only a leader of the Liberal Party as a whole, when a party member was Prime Minister or was the most recent Prime Minister from the party and was still in active politics. At other times the leaders in the House of Lords and House of Commons were of equal status and in theory jointly led the party.

When a new leader was required, with the party in government, the monarch selected him by appointing someone as Prime Minister. However in 1916 David Lloyd George, with the support of a minority of the Liberal MPs, formed a coalition government. Herbert Henry Asquith, the former Prime Minister, remained as Liberal Party leader. Asquith retained the leadership until his health failed in 1926, including periods when he was not in Parliament or was a peer. He was the last leader of the whole party under the original arrangements for leadership.

When no overall party leader was a member of a House and a new leader was required in opposition, a leader emerged and was approved by party members in that House. From 1919 the Chairman of the Liberal Parliamentary Party, elected by MPs, functioned as the leader in the House of Commons. This required all the leaders after Asquith to retain their seat, to continue as leader. After 1926 the leader in the House of Commons was clearly pre-eminent over the leader in the House of Lords.

In 1931 Lloyd George was leader in the House of Commons, but he was ill when negotiations led to the formation of the National Government. Sir Herbert Samuel, who had been the deputy leader, was effectively the leader of the mainstream party from the time when he entered the government. This was made formal after the 1931 election.

[edit] Leadership selection 1969-1988

Under the original provisions of the 1969 party constitution, the MPs elected one of their number to be Leader of the Liberal Party. This was the same system as that used for the last MP only contested leadership election, which had taken place in 1967, when Jeremy Thorpe became leader after a vote split between three candidates of 6-3-3.

As the number of Liberal MPs was very small (between 6 and 14 in the period the MPs retained the sole power of election) party members argued for a wider franchise. Before the leadership election of 1976, all members were given a vote in an electoral college based on allocating electoral votes to constituency associations (which were then divided proportionately to the votes of the members of the association). The candidates were required to be members of the House of Commons, nominated by a quarter of the MPs. The electoral college system was only used once, when David Steel was elected leader.

[edit] Lists of Liberal Party Leaders

[edit] Leaders of the Liberal Party

	Name	Constituency/Title	Took Office	Left Office
1	Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston ¹	Tiverton	12 June 1859	18 October 1865
2	John Russell	1st Earl Russell	29 October 1865	3 December 1868
3	William Ewart Gladstone ²	Greenwich	3 December 1868	3 February 1875
3	William Ewart Gladstone ²	Edinburghshire	23 April 1880	2 March 1894
4	Archibald Philip Primrose ³	5th Earl of Rosebery	5 March 1894	6 October 1896
5	Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman	Stirling Burghs	5 December 1905	3 April 1908
6	Herbert Henry Asquith ⁴	East Fife (1907-1918); Paisley (1920-1924); 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (1925-1926)	5 April 1908	15 October 1926
7	Jeremy Thorpe ⁵	North Devon	1969	10 May 1976
8	Jo Grimond ⁶	Orkney and Shetland	12 May 1976	7 July 1976
9	David Steel ⁷	Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles (1967-1983); Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale (1983-1988)	7 July 1976	3 March 1988

Notes

¹ Palmerston was appointed Prime Minister a few days after the meeting at Willis's Rooms on 6 June 1859, which formally created the Liberal Party. He was an Irish peer and a member of the House of Commons. He died in office.
² Gladstone retired from the leadership, when the party was in opposition, in 1875. The overall leadership of the party then became vacant until Gladstone was again appointed Prime Minister.
³ Rosebery resigned the leadership, when the party was in opposition. The overall leadership of the party became vacant until the formation of the next Liberal government in 1905.
⁴ Asquith resigned the leadership, when the party was in opposition. The overall leadership of the party became vacant until the adoption of the 1969 party constitution.
⁵ Thorpe was the first Leader of the Liberal Party under the 1969 constitution.
⁶ Grimond was appointed interim leader by the parliamentary party, between the resignation of Thorpe and the election of Steel.
⁷ Steel was the last party leader. He became one of the joint interim leaders of the Liberal Democrats on the merger in 1988.

[edit] Leaders of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons

	Name	Constituency	Took Office	Left Office
1	Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston ¹	Tiverton	12 June 1859	18 October 1865
2	William Ewart Gladstone	Greenwich	29 October 1865	3 February 1875
3	Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington	Radnor	3 February 1875	23 April 1880
	William Ewart Gladstone	Edinburghshire	23 April 1880	2 March 1894
4	Sir William Vernon Harcourt	Derby (1894-1895); West Monmouthshire (1895-1898)	5 March 1894	14 December 1898
5	Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman	Stirling Burghs	6 February 1899	3 April 1908
6	Herbert Henry Asquith ²	East Fife	5 April 1908	25 November 1918
7	Sir Donald Maclean ³	Peebles and South Midlothian	3 February 1919	12 February 1920
	Herbert Henry Asquith ⁴	Paisley	12 February 1920	9 October 1924
8	David Lloyd George ⁵	Caernarvon Boroughs	2 December 1924	7 October 1931
9	Sir Herbert Samuel ⁶	Darwen	4 November 1931	25 October 1935
10	Sir Archibald Sinclair, Bt ⁷	Caithness and Sutherland	26 November 1935	15 June 1945
11	Clement Davies	Montgomery	2 August 1945	5 November 1956
12	Jo Grimond	Orkney and Shetland	5 November 1956	17 January 1967
13	Jeremy Thorpe	North Devon	18 January 1967	10 May 1976
	Jo Grimond ⁸	Orkney and Shetland	12 May 1976	7 July 1976
14	David Steel ⁹	Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles (1967-1983); Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale (1983-1988)	7 July 1976	3 March 1988

Notes

¹ Palmerston was appointed Prime Minister a few days after the meeting at Willis's Rooms on 6 June 1859, which formally created the Liberal Party. He was an Irish peer and a member of the House of Commons. He died in office.
² Asquith became Prime Minister on 5 April although British Political Facts considers him to be leader from 30 April 1908. He lost his seat in the United Kingdom general election, 1918.
³ Maclean was elected Chairman of the Liberal Parliamentary Party. In the absence from Parliament of Asquith he acted as leader of the Liberal MPs opposed to the Lloyd George coalition. Although this was a smaller group than the Parliamentary Labour Party, Maclean also performed the functions of Leader of the Opposition.
⁴ Asquith was elected in a by-election and sat until he lost his seat in the United Kingdom general election, 1924.
⁵ Lloyd George was elected Chairman of the Liberal Parliamentary Party. In the absence from Parliament of Asquith he acted as leader of the Liberal MPs. When Asquith became a peer in 1925, Lloyd George became leader in the House of Commons. When Asquith retired then from 14 October 1926, Lloyd George became the leading figure in the party.
⁶ Samuel took office in the National Government on 4 November 1931 and from then effectively acted as party leader. However he did not receive the formal title until after the United Kingdom general election, 1931. He lost his seat in the United Kingdom general election, 1935.
⁷ Sinclair lost his seat in the United Kingdom general election, 1945.
⁸ Grimond was appointed interim leader by the parliamentary party, between the resignation of Thorpe and the election of Steel.
⁹ Steel was the last party leader. He became one of the joint interim leaders of the Liberal Democrats on the merger in 1988.

[edit] Leaders of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords

	Name	Title	Took Office	Left Office
1	Granville George Leveson-Gower	2nd Earl Granville	1859	1865
2	John Russell	1st Earl Russell	1865	1868
	Granville George Leveson-Gower	2nd Earl Granville	1868	1891
3	John Wodehouse	1st Earl of Kimberley	1891	1894
4	Archibald Philip Primrose	5th Earl of Rosebery	1894	1896
	John Wodehouse	1st Earl of Kimberley	1896	1902
5	George Robinson	1st Marquess of Ripon	1902	1908
6	Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes	1st Marquess of Crewe	1908	1923
7	Edward Grey	1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon	1923	1924
8	William Lygon	7th Earl Beauchamp	1924	1931
9	Rufus Isaacs	1st Marquess of Reading	1931	1935
	Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes	1st Marquess of Crewe	1936	1944
10	Herbert Samuel	1st Viscount Samuel	1944	1955
11	Philip Russell Rea	2nd Lord Rea	1955	1967
12	Charles Frank Byers	The Lord Byers	1967	1984
13	Nancy Seear	The Baroness Seear	1984	1988

[edit] See also

[edit] References

David Butler and Gareth Butler, Twentieth-Century British Political Facts 1900-2000 (8th edition). Macmillan, 2000. ISBN 0-333-77222-9.
John Campbell, Lloyd George: The Goat in the Wilderness 1922-1931. Jonathan Cape, 1977. ISBN 0-224-01296-7.
Chris Cook, A Short History of the Liberal Party, 1900-2001 (6th edition). Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002. ISBN 0-333-91838-X.
Roy Douglas, History of the Liberal Party 1895-1970. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1971. ISBN 0-283-48477-2.
Roy Jenkins, Asquith. Collins, (paperback edition) 1988. ISBN 0-00-217358-1.
Roy Jenkins, Gladstone. Macmillan, 1995. ISBN 0-333-60216-1.
Jonathan Parry, The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain. Yale, 1993.ISBN 0-300-06718-6.