 |
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
The 2017 Liberal Democrats deputy leadership election was announced on 14 June 2017, [1] and Jo Swinson was elected unopposed on 20 June.
| |
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
The 2017 Liberal Democrats deputy leadership election was announced on 14 June 2017, [1] and Jo Swinson was elected unopposed on 20 June.
Following a meeting of the parliamentary party on 12 June 2017, nominations for the deputy leader role were opened. Nominations closed on 20 June, and Jo Swinson was elected unopposed, having been the only nominee at the close of nominations. [2] [3]
Had there been a contest, there would have been a hustings at the parliamentary party meeting on 27 June 2017, and following the hustings the election would have been decided through a secret ballot of the parliamentary party using the alternative vote method. [1]
Tim Farron was elected as party leader, defeating Norman Lamb, in July 2015. Kate Parminter and Navnit Dholakia were elected deputy leaders of the party's House of Lords group in June 2015. [4]
The position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats has never formally existed. Since the party's foundation, the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons has elected a Deputy Leader. Although often referred to as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, this post is actually only Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons, not of the Liberal Democrats as a whole.
When the last Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons, Sir Malcolm Bruce, stood down at the 2015 general election, held on 7 May, the remaining Liberal Democrat MPs did not elect a Deputy Leader.
Under current rules, there is no position of "Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats", however the party's MPs could (and until 2015 did) elect a Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons. Following the 2015 general election, when the party returned eight Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons did not elect a Deputy Leader.
Both 2015 leadership candidates called for a change in the rules for choosing a Deputy Leader, to make it possible for a woman to be elected. This was considered necessary because all eight Liberal Democrat MPs at that time were men. A change in the rules would therefore remove the requirement for the Deputy Leader to be an MP.
On 15 May 2015, leadership candidate Norman Lamb MP proposed a change to the rules that would mean that the Deputy Leader is elected by all Party members on a one member one vote basis, with the explicit purpose of ensuring that the deputy leader is a woman, suggesting to Party members' website Liberal Democrat Voice that "she could be one of the former or future colleagues mentioned below; a peer, a member of a devolved chamber or the European Parliament; a leading councillor or seasoned campaigner." [5]
On 5 June 2015, Tim Farron, the subsequent winner of the leadership contest, told The Guardian that he wanted the Deputy Leader to be a woman and that he wanted 50% of the Liberal Democrat front bench team to be women; the paper reported that this "would require a change to the Party's constitution". [6]
In August 2015, a proposed amendment to the Liberal Democrats' party constitution was published on the agenda of the 2015 Autumn Conference held in Bournemouth. This amendment, which was debated on 22 September, would have abolished the power of the Liberal Democrats' MPs to choose a Deputy Leader and instead reconstituted the position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats as a directly elected post.
This post was to be elected by one member one vote in the same way as the Leader, with nominations open to all members of the Party who must be "supported by 200 [7] members in aggregate in no fewer than 20 Local Parties". [8] The amendment did not set a specific date by which the deputy leadership election would have been held, if passed. After nearly an hour of debate, the amendment was referred back to the Governance Review for further consideration by a vote of 218–167. [9]
The Governance Review, presented to the 2016 Autumn Conference held in Brighton, reported the following to Conference:
After the General Election some members proposed that the party should elect a Deputy Leader from the wider membership, rather than the parliamentary party in the Commons. Members' responses to the consultation have been mixed: whilst keen on a wider democratic mandate, there was recognition that the Leader would have to be able to work with the Deputy, and there were conflicting responses as well as a degree of confusion as to their potential role.
Some suggested the Deputy Leader should be elected, others thought that the Leader should be able to choose their deputy. The Federal Executive is therefore offering members two choices to vote on at conference. The first is [that] a Deputy Leader is a parliamentarian (including Scottish and Welsh representatives as well as those in Westminster or the European Parliament) elected at the same time as a Leader on a joint ticket, with arrangements in place in the event that the Deputy resigns mid-term.
The second is that the Deputy Leader is elected by the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons from among their number. [10]
With both proposed choices placed onto the Conference agenda as constitutional amendments, Conference chose to adopt the second choice, with the Deputy Leader being elected by the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons from among themselves, if they so choose. [11] [12] The successful amendment also provides that if the position of Leader falls vacant, then the Deputy Leader or, if no such post exists, the Chief Whip, will assume the post of Acting Leader until a new Leader is elected. [12]
Following the close of nominations, only Jo Swinson was officially nominated, and was elected unopposed. [2] [3]
Sir Edward Jonathan Davey is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020, having acted in the position from 2019 to 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015 and as Deputy Leader to Jo Swinson in 2019. An "Orange Book" liberal, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston and Surbiton since 2017, and served in the same role from 1997 to 2015.
Sir Norman Peter Lamb is a British politician and solicitor. He was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for North Norfolk from 2001 to 2019, and was the chair of the Science and Technology Select Committee from 2017 to 2019.
Alexander Morrison "Alistair" Carmichael is a Scottish politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Orkney and Shetland since 2001. A member of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, he currently serves as the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs, Northern Ireland and Justice spokesperson. He served as the Deputy Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 2012 to 2021.
Sarah Virginia Brinton, Baroness Brinton, known as Sal Brinton, is a British politician who served as president of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2020. In November 2010 she was nominated to the House of Lords, taking her place on 10 February 2011 having been created Baroness Brinton, of Kenardington in the County of Kent on 4 February. After Jo Swinson lost her seat at the 2019 United Kingdom general election, Brinton and Sir Ed Davey became acting co-leaders of the Liberal Democrats. After Brinton's term as party president ended, her successor Mark Pack also succeeded her as acting co-leader with Davey. Davey was elected as permanent leader of the party in 2020.
Joanne Kate Swinson is a British former politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from July to December 2019. She was the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position, as well as the shortest-serving holder of the post. Swinson was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Dunbartonshire from 2005 to 2015 and 2017 to 2019. In September 2020 Swinson became Director of Partners for a New Economy (P4NE).
Timothy James Farron is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017. He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005 and is the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Before entering politics, he worked in higher education.
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.
The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. Since the 1992 general election, with the exception of the 2015 general election, they have been the third-largest UK political party by the number of votes cast. They have 15 members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 84 members of the House of Lords, four Members of the Scottish Parliament and one member in the Welsh Senedd. The party has nearly 3,000 local council seats. The party holds a twice-per-year Liberal Democrat Conference, at which party policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents' conference rules, the Lib Dems grant all members attending its Conference the right to speak in debates and vote on party policy, under a one member, one vote system. The party also allows its members to vote online for its policies and in the election of a new leader. The party served as the junior party in a coalition government with the Conservative Party between 2010 and 2015; with Scottish Labour in the Scottish Executive from 1999 to 2007, and with Welsh Labour in the Welsh Government from 2000 to 2003 and from 2016 to 2021.
The office of deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats is a position within the Liberal Democrats, a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. The position of Deputy Leader has never formally existed in the party constitution, however since the party's foundation, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary group in the House of Commons have usually elected a Deputy Leader. Although often referred to as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, this post is actually only Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat parliamentary group in the House of Commons and not Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems as a whole.
Duncan John Hames is a Director of Policy at Transparency International UK and a former Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Chippenham constituency in Wiltshire from 2010 to 2015. Between 2012 and 2015, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Nick Clegg when he was Deputy Prime Minister.
The 2010 Liberal Democrats deputy leadership election began on 26 May 2010, when the sitting Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable, announced his resignation following his appointment as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. Nominations closed on 2 June, and the balloting took place on 9 June. The election was won by Simon Hughes.
The list that follows is the Liberal Democrats Frontbench Team/Shadow Cabinet led by Menzies Campbell from 2006 to 2007.
The 2014 Liberal Democrats deputy leadership election began on 18 December 2013, when the incumbent Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Simon Hughes, was appointed Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, and opted to resign his party position to focus on his new post.
The 2015 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held on 16 July 2015 following the resignation of Nick Clegg as leader on 8 May 2015, after almost eight years as leader of the Liberal Democrats, following the party's poor performance at the 2015 general election.
Wera Benedicta Hobhouse is a British-German politician. A member of the Liberal Democrats, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath since 2017 and serves as the Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and the Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change and Transport under Ed Davey.
The 2017 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held following the resignation of Tim Farron as leader on 14 June 2017, after just under two years as leader of the Liberal Democrats. At the close of applications on 20 July 2017, Vince Cable was the only nominated candidate and was therefore declared the new leader of the party.
The 2019 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held following the announcement of the resignation of Vince Cable as leader on 24 May 2019, after just under two years as leader of the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom. The two candidates to succeed Cable were Ed Davey and Jo Swinson.
The 2019 Liberal Democrats deputy leadership election was held in September 2019. It followed the election of the incumbent deputy leader Jo Swinson as party leader in July 2019.
This is a summary of the electoral history of Jo Swinson, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 22 July to 13 December 2019, and a Member of the United Kingdom Parliament from 2005 to 2019, when she lost her seat as MP for East Dunbartonshire in the 2019 General Election and, due to party rules, stepped down from her position as Leader of the Liberal Democrats.
The 2020 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held in August 2020, after Jo Swinson, the previous leader of the Liberal Democrats, lost her seat in the 2019 general election. It was initially set to be held in July 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was delayed by six weeks, having been at first postponed until May 2021.
| |
| Politics | |
| General elections | |
| Party elections | |
| Family | |
