Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Leader of the Liberal Democrats

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Formation
  
3 March 1988

Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Member of
  
LibDems Frontbench team LibDems Federal Executive

Appointer
  
Liberal Democrats membership

Inaugural holder
  
David Steel and Robert Maclennan

Website
  
libdems.org.uk/tim farron

The Liberal Democrats are a political party in the United Kingdom. Party members elect the Leader of the Liberal Democrats. Liberal Democrat Members of Parliament also elect a Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Group in the House of Commons, often colloquially referred to as 'the Deputy Leader'. Under the federal constitution of the Liberal Democrats the leader is required to be a member of the House of Commons.

Contents

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

Notes:

  • 1 Joint acting leader, as the last leader of the Liberal Party before the merger.
  • 2 Joint acting leader, as the last leader of the Social Democratic Party before the merger.
  • 3 Acting leader between the resignation of Charles Kennedy on 7 January 2006 and his own election as leader on 2 March 2006.
  • 4 Acting 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; resigned on 8 May 2015 following the 2015 general election, but formally retained leadership until a successor was chosen.

    • Liberal Democrat Leaders in the House of Lords

    The Liberal Democrat peers elect the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords. The first four 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. Lord Wallace of Tankerness had been a member of the Liberal Party before the merger. Lord Newby had been a civil servant before joining the SDP.

    References

    Leader of the Liberal Democrats Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA