Leader of the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a political party in the United Kingdom. Party members elect the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the head and highest-ranking member of the party. Liberal Democrat members of Parliament also elect a deputy leader of the Parliamentary Party 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.

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 Social Democratic Party (SDP), served as joint interim leaders: David Steel and Bob Maclennan respectively.

If the leader dies, resigns or loses their seat in Parliament, the deputy leader (if there is one) serves as interim leader until a leadership election takes place. This has occurred three times, 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. Jo Swinson lost her seat in the general election held on 12 December 2019, thus ceasing to be leader; Deputy Leader Ed Davey and Party President Sal Brinton became acting co-leaders. Brinton was replaced by Mark Pack following his assuming the office of party president on 1 January 2020. Davey won the Leadership election and became Leader on 27 August 2020 at the 2020 Liberal Democrats leadership election.

Leaders

Leader (Birth–Death)		Portrait	Constituency	Took office	Left office	TenureTemplate:Efn	Prime Minister (term)
David Steel and Robert Maclennan were jointly Acting Leader during this interim from the formation of the party on 3 March 1988.							style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" |	Thatcher 1979–1990
rowspan="4" style="background-color: Template:Party color|1	Paddy Ashdown (1941–2018)	File:Paddy Ashdown (2005) (cropped).jpg	Yeovil	16 July 1988 (Elected)	9 August 1999	4041 days
height=20 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" |							Major 1990–1997
height=20 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" |							Blair 1997–2007
style="background-color: Template:Party color|2	Charles Kennedy (1959–2015)	File:Charles Kennedy MP (cropped).jpg	Ross, Skye and Inverness West (1999–2005) Ross, Skye and Lochaber (2005–2006)	9 August 1999 (Elected)	7 January 2006	2343 days		style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" |
Sir Menzies Campbell was Acting Leader during this interim.								style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" |
rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color|3	Sir Menzies Campbell (1941–)	File:Official portrait of Lord Campbell of Pittenweem crop 2.jpg	North East Fife	2 March 2006 (Elected)	15 October 2007	592 days		height="40" style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
height=40 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" |							Brown 2007–2010
Vince Cable was Acting Leader during this interim.								style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" |
rowspan=3 style="background-color: Template:Party color|4	Nick CleggTemplate:Efn (1967–)	File:Nick Clegg official portrait.jpg	Sheffield Hallam	18 December 2007 (Elected)	16 July 2015	2767 days
height=40 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
height=40 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" |							Cameron 2010–2016
rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Party color|5	Tim Farron (1970–)	File:Official portrait of Tim Farron MP crop 2.jpg	Westmorland and Lonsdale	16 July 2015 (Elected)	20 July 2017	735 days		height="40" style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
rowspan=2 height=50 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" |							May 2016–2019
style="background-color: Template:Party color|6	Sir Vince Cable (1943–)	File:Vince Cable closeup.jpg	Twickenham	20 July 2017 (Unopposed)	22 July 2019	732 days
rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Party color|7	Jo Swinson (1980–)	File:Jo Swinson (cropped).jpg	East Dunbartonshire	22 July 2019 (Elected)	13 December 2019	144 days		height="50" style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
rowspan=3 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" |							Johnson 2019–2022
Sir Ed Davey and The Baroness Brinton were jointly Acting Leader during this interim prior to 31 December 2019.
Sir Ed Davey and Mark Pack were jointly Acting Leader during this interim from 1 January 2020.
rowspan="4" style="background-color: Template:Party color|8	Sir Ed Davey (1965–)	File:Official portrait of Ed Davey MP crop 3, 2024.jpg	Kingston and Surbiton	27 August 2020 (Elected)	Incumbent	Template:Days since days		height="20" style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray" |							Truss 2022
style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" |							Sunak 2022–2024
style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" |							Starmer 2024–present

Timeline

<timeline> DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12 Period = from:03/03/1988 till:28/06/2026 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal AlignBars = late PlotArea = top:10 bottom:100 right:130 left:20 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:01/01/1990 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/1989

Define $today = 28/06/2026

Colors =

    id:leader   value:rgb(0.98,0.65,0.10)
    id:acting   value:rgb(0.99,0.82,0.55)

BarData =

 bar:Steel
 bar:Maclennan
 bar:Ashdown
 bar:Kennedy
 bar:Campbell
 bar:Clegg
 bar:Farron
 bar:Cable
 bar:Swinson
 bar:Davey
 bar:Brinton
 bar:Pack

PlotData=

 width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

bar:Steel
 from: start till: 16/07/1988 color:acting text:"David Steel"

bar:Maclennan
 from: start till: 16/07/1988 color:acting text:"Bob Maclennan"

bar:Ashdown
 from: 16/07/1988 till: 09/08/1999 color:leader text:"Paddy Ashdown"

bar:Kennedy
 from: 09/08/1999 till: 07/01/2006 color:leader text:"Charles Kennedy"

bar:Campbell
 from: 07/01/2006 till: 02/03/2006 color:acting
 from: 02/03/2006 till: 15/10/2007 color:leader text:"Menzies Campbell"

bar:Clegg
 from: 18/12/2007 till: 16/07/2015 color:leader text:"Nick Clegg"

bar:Farron
 from: 16/07/2015 till: 20/07/2017 color:leader text:"Tim Farron"

bar:Cable
 from: 15/10/2007 till: 18/12/2007 color:acting
 from: 20/07/2017 till: 22/07/2019 color:leader text:"Vince Cable"

bar:Swinson
 from: 22/07/2019 till: 13/12/2019 color:leader text:"Jo Swinson"

bar:Davey
 from: 13/12/2019 till: 27/08/2020 color:acting
 from: 27/08/2020 till: end color:leader text:"Ed Davey"

bar:Brinton
 from: 13/12/2019 till: 31/12/2019 color:acting text:"Sal Brinton"

bar:Pack
 from: 01/01/2020 till: 27/08/2020 color:acting text:"Mark Pack"

</timeline>

See also

• List of United Kingdom Whig and allied party leaders, 1801–1859
• Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)
• Leader of the Labour Party (UK)
• Leader of the Liberal Party (UK)

References

Sources

• Federal Constitution of the Liberal Democrats

External links

• Liberal Democrat History Group