Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Not to be confused with Leader of the Liberal Party (UK).

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.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Incumbent Sir Ed Davey since 27 August 2020 Acting: 13 December 2019 – 27 August 2020
Member of	Liberal Democrat frontbench team Liberal Democrats Federal Board
Appointer	Liberal Democrats membership
Inaugural holder	David Steel and Bob Maclennan
Formation	3 March 1988
Website	Official website

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.^[1] 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	Tenure[a]	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.								Thatcher 1979–1990
1	Paddy Ashdown (1941–2018)		Yeovil	16 July 1988 (Elected)	9 August 1999	4041 days
								Major 1990–1997
								Blair 1997–2007
2	Charles Kennedy (1959–2015)		Ross, Skye and Inverness West (1999–2005) Ross, Skye and Lochaber (2005–2006)	9 August 1999 (Elected)	7 January 2006	2343 days
Sir Menzies Campbell was Acting Leader during this interim.
3	Sir Menzies Campbell (1941–)		North East Fife	2 March 2006 (Elected)	15 October 2007	592 days
								Brown 2007–2010
Vince Cable was Acting Leader during this interim.
4	Nick Clegg[b] (1967–)		Sheffield Hallam	18 December 2007 (Elected)	16 July 2015	2767 days
								Cameron 2010–2016
5	Tim Farron (1970–)		Westmorland and Lonsdale	16 July 2015 (Elected)	20 July 2017	735 days
								May 2016–2019
6	Sir Vince Cable (1943–)		Twickenham	20 July 2017 (Unopposed)	22 July 2019	732 days
7	Jo Swinson (1980–)		East Dunbartonshire	22 July 2019 (Elected)	13 December 2019	144 days
								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.
8	Sir Ed Davey (1965–)		Kingston and Surbiton	27 August 2020 (Elected)	Incumbent	1819 days
								Truss 2022
								Sunak 2022–2024
								Starmer 2024–present

Timeline

Leaders in the House of Lords

Main article: Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords

See also

• Politics portal
• United Kingdom portal
• Liberalism portal
• Lists portal

• 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)

Notes

1. This does not include any time as interim or acting leader.
2. Deputy Prime Minister as part of the Coalition with the Conservative Party; resigned on 8 May 2015 following the 2015 general election, but formally retained leadership until a successor was chosen.^[2][3]