Leader of the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrat members elect the United Kingdom Liberal Democrat Leader and the Members of Parliament elect the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader. Under the federal constitution of the Liberal Democrats the leader is required to be a member of the House of Commons.

Before the election of the first federal leader of the party (the Liberal Democrats having a federal structure in their internal party organisation), the leaders of the two parties which merged to form the Liberal Democrats, the Liberal Party and the SDP, served as joint interim leaders.

In the event that the leader dies, resigns or loses his or her seat in Parliament, the deputy leader serves as interim leader until a leadership election takes place. This has occurred twice, with Menzies Campbell serving as interim leader following the resignation of Charles Kennedy (Campbell was elected leader in the ensuing election) and Vince Cable serving as interim leader following Campbell's resignation.

List of Leaders and Deputy Leaders of the Liberal Democrats

Leader				Deputy Leader				Prime Minister
#	Name Constituency	Portrait	Term of Office	#	Name Constituency	Portrait	Term of Office
1	David Steel 1 MP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale and Robert Maclennan 2 MP for Caithness and Sutherland		3 March 1988 –16 July 1988						Margaret Thatcher 1979–1990
2	Paddy Ashdown MP for Yeovil		16 July 1988 –9 August 1999	1	Russell Johnston MP for Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber		16 July 1988 –13 April 1992
									John Major 1990–1997
				2	Alan Beith MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed		13 April 1992 –12 February 2003
									Tony Blair 1997–2007
3	Charles Kennedy MP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West until 2005 MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 2005		9 August 1999 –7 January 2006
				3	Menzies Campbell MP for North East Fife		12 February 2003 –2 March 2006
4	Sir Menzies Campbell 3 MP for North East Fife		2 March 2006 –15 October 2007	4	Vincent Cable MP for Twickenham		29 March 2006 –26 May 2010
	Vincent Cable (interim4) MP for Twickenham		15 October 2007 –18 December 2007						Gordon Brown 2007–2010
5	Nick Clegg5 MP for Sheffield Hallam		18 December 2007 –
									David Cameron 2010–
				5	Simon Hughes MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark		9 June 2010 –28 January 2014
				6	Sir Malcolm Bruce MP for Gordon		28 January 2014 –

Notes:-

• ¹ Joint interim leader, as the last leader of the Liberal Party before the merger.
• ² Joint interim leader, as the last leader of the Social Democratic Party before the merger.
• ³ Interim leader between the resignation of Charles Kennedy on 7 January 2006 and his own election as leader on 2 March 2006.
• ⁴ Interim leader between the resignation of Menzies Campbell on 15 October 2007 and the election of a new leader on 18 December 2007.
• ⁵ Deputy Prime Minister as part of the Liberal - Conservative Coalition.

Liberal Democrat Leaders in the House of Lords

The Liberal Democrat peers elect the Liberal Democrat Leader in the House of Lords. Until the election of Lord Wallace of Tankerness in October 2013, all previous Leaders had been members of the Labour Party who left to form the Social Democratic Party in 1981 before merging with the Liberal Party in 1988.

Leader in the House of Lords
#	Leader		Took office	Left office
1	Lord Jenkins of Hillhead (Roy Jenkins)		16 July 1988	1997
2	Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank (William Rodgers)		1997	2001
3	Baroness Williams of Crosby (Shirley Williams)		2001	24 November 2004
4	Lord McNally (Tom McNally)		24 November 2004	October 2013
5	Lord Wallace of Tankerness (Jim Wallace)		October 2013	present

See also

• List of United Kingdom Whig and allied Party Leaders 1801-1859
• List of United Kingdom Liberal Party Leaders
• Liberal Democrat Leader in the House of Lords
• Social and Liberal Democrats leadership election, 1988
• Liberal Democrats leadership election, 1999
• Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2006
• Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2007

References

• Federal Constitution of the Liberal Democrats

External links

• Liberal Democrat History Group