Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)

Leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party
Logo for the Conservative Party
Incumbent Kemi Badenoch since 2 November 2024
Type	Party leader
Status	Chief executive officer
Member of	Conservative Party
Inaugural holder	Robert Peel (de facto) Bonar Law (de jure)
Formation	1834 (de facto) 1922 (de jure)

The leader of the Conservative Party (officially the leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party) is the highest position within the United Kingdom's Conservative Party. The current holder of the position is Kemi Badenoch, whom the party elected on 2 November 2024 when she outpolled Robert Jenrick. ^[1]

From the party's formation in 1834 until 1922, the leader of the Conservative Party was not a formal position; instead, separate individuals led the party within each chamber of Parliament, and they were considered equal unless one took precedence over the other, such as when one was serving as prime minister. Following the passage of the Parliament Act 1911, the reduction of power in the House of Lords suggested that the Conservative leader in the House of Commons would become preeminent, but this situation was not formalised until 1922.

Since 1922, leaders of the Conservative Party have been formally elected, even when the party is in opposition. Originally, the party leader was appointed opaquely by other high-ranking members of the party. This process was gradually democratised in the late-20th century; in 1965, the appointment was linked to a vote by party MPs, and in 1998, the process was opened to all party members to decide between the top two candidates selected by parliamentarians. ^{[2] [3]} Under the party's rules, members of the party can vote for a leader even if they are not British citizens, do not reside in the UK, and do not have the right to vote in British elections. ^{[4] [5]}

When the Conservative Party is in opposition, as is the case as of 2025 ^[update] , the leader of the Conservative Party usually acts (as the head of second-largest party) as the Leader of the Opposition, and chairs the shadow cabinet. Concordantly, when the party is in government, the leader usually becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Minister for the Union, as well as selecting members of the Cabinet. Four of the party's leaders have been women: Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch, all of whom, except Badenoch, have served as prime minister. Rishi Sunak was the first British Indian party leader and prime minister. ^[6] The only Conservative leaders (excluding temporary acting-leaders) not to contest a general election have been Iain Duncan Smith and Truss (each of whom resigned before the calling of an election).

Selection process

Under the party's constitution, ^[2] leaders are elected by serving MPs and party members whose membership started at least three months prior to the closing of a ballot. Candidates must be serving MPs. A former leader who has resigned may not stand in the contest triggered by their departure.

Those who wish to stand must notify the 1922 Committee, a body representing backbench Conservative Party MPs, which has broad powers to set the rules of the leadership race (e.g. the minimum number of nominees candidates need).

The party's practice is for MPs to eliminate candidates through multiple rounds of voting until two remain, from whom the winner is then chosen by a ballot of party members.

The 1922 Committee's chairman acts as the returning officer for all stages of the leadership election process.

Overall leaders of the party (1834–1922)

Overall leader (birth–death)	Portrait	Constituency or title	Took office	Left office	Government
					Party		Prime Minister	Term
Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850)		Tamworth 2nd Baronet	18 December 1834 [a]	29 June 1846		Con	himself	1834–35
						Whig	Melbourne	1835–41
						Con	himself	1841–46
Edward Smith-Stanley (1799–1869)		Baron Stanley (1846–1851)	29 June 1846	27 February 1868		Whig	Russell	1846–52
		14th Earl of Derby (1851–1868)				Con	himself	1852
						Peel	Aberdeen	1852–55
						Whig	Palmerston	1855–58
						Con	himself	1858–59
						Lib	Palmerston	1859–65
						Lib	Russell	1865–66
						Con	himself	1866–68
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)		Buckinghamshire (1868–1876)	27 February 1868	19 April 1881 [b]		Con	himself	1868
						Lib	Gladstone	1868–74
						Con	himself	1874–80
		1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1876–1881)				Lib	Gladstone	1880–85
vacant	Leader in the House of Lords Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury Leader in the House of Commons Stafford Northcote		19 April 1881	23 June 1885
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (1830–1903)		3rd Marquess of Salisbury	23 June 1885	11 July 1902		Con	himself	1885–86
						Lib	Gladstone	1886
						Con	himself	1886–92
						Lib	Gladstone	1892–94
						Lib	Rosebery	1894–95
						Con	himself	1895–1902
Arthur Balfour (1848–1930)		Manchester East (1902–1906)	11 July 1902	13 November 1911		Con	himself	1902–05
		City of London (1906–1911)				Lib	C.-Bannerman	1905–08
						Lib	Asquith	1908–16
vacant	Leader in the House of Lords Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne Leader in the House of Commons Bonar Law		13 November 1911	10 December 1916 [c]
						Lib	Lloyd George	1916–22
Andrew Bonar Law (1858–1923)		Bootle (1916–1918)	10 December 1916 [c]	21 March 1921
		Glasgow Central (1918–1921)
vacant	Leader in the House of Lords George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston Leader in the House of Commons Austen Chamberlain		21 March 1921	23 October 1922 [c]

Leaders of the party (1922–present)

Leader (birth–death)	Portrait	Constituency or title	Took office	Left office	Government
					Party		Prime Minister	Term
Andrew Bonar Law (1858–1923)		Glasgow Central	23 October 1922 (Party meeting)	28 May 1923		Con	himself	1922–23
Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947)		Bewdley	28 May 1923 (Party meeting)	31 May 1937		Con	himself	1923–24
						Lab	MacDonald	1924
						Con	himself	1924–29
						Lab	MacDonald	1929–35
						NLab
						Con	himself	1935–37
Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)		Birmingham Edgbaston	31 May 1937 (Party meeting)	9 October 1940		Con	himself	1937–40
							Churchill	1940
Winston Churchill (1874–1965)		Epping (1940–1945)	9 October 1940 (Party meeting)	21 April 1955		Con	himself	1940–45
		Woodford (1945–1955)				Lab	Attlee	1945–51
						Con	himself	1951–55
Anthony Eden (1897–1977)		Warwick and Leamington	21 April 1955 (Party meeting)	22 January 1957		Con	himself	1955–57
Harold Macmillan (1894–1986)		Bromley	22 January 1957 (Party meeting)	11 November 1963		Con	himself	1957–63
Alec Douglas-Home (1903–1995)		14th Earl of Home (1963)	11 November 1963 (Party meeting)	27 July 1965		Con	himself	1963–64
		Kinross and Western Perthshire (1963–1965)
						Lab	Wilson	1964–70
Edward Heath (1916–2005)		Bexley (1965 – 1974)	27 July 1965 (Elected)	11 February 1975
						Con	himself	1970–74
		Sidcup (1974–1975)
						Lab	Wilson	1974–76
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013)		Finchley	11 February 1975 (Elected)	27 November 1990
						Lab	Callaghan	1976–79
						Con	herself	1979–90
John Major (b. 1943)		Huntingdon	27 November 1990 (Opponents withdrew)	19 June 1997
						Con	himself	1990–97
						Lab	Blair	1997–2007
William Hague (b. 1961)		Richmond (Yorks)	19 June 1997 (Elected)	13 September 2001
Iain Duncan Smith (b. 1954)		Chingford and Woodford Green	13 September 2001 (Elected)	6 November 2003
Michael Howard (b. 1941)		Folkestone and Hythe	6 November 2003 ( Unopposed )	7 October 2005 [7]
David Cameron (b. 1966)		Witney	6 December 2005 (Elected)	11 July 2016
						Lab	Brown	2007–10
						Coal	himself	2010–15
						Con		2015–16
Theresa May (b. 1956)		Maidenhead	11 July 2016 (Opponents withdrew)	7 June 2019		Con	herself	2016–19
			7 June 2019 (Acting)	23 July 2019
Boris Johnson (b. 1964)		Uxbridge and South Ruislip	23 July 2019 (Elected)	5 September 2022		Con	himself	2019–22
Liz Truss (b. 1975)		South West Norfolk	5 September 2022 (Elected)	24 October 2022		Con	herself	2022
Rishi Sunak (b. 1980)		Richmond (Yorks) (2015–2024)	24 October 2022 (Unopposed)	24 July 2024		Con	himself	2022–24
		Richmond and Northallerton (2024)	24 July 2024 (Acting)	2 November 2024		Lab	Starmer	2024–present
Kemi Badenoch (b. 1980)		North West Essex	2 November 2024 (Elected)	Incumbent

Timeline

Houses of Lords and Commons leaders

See also: Leader of the House of Lords and Leader of the House of Commons

Leaders in the House of Lords (1834–present)

Main article: Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords

Leaders in the House of Commons (1834–1922)

Those asterisked were considered the overall leader of the party.

• Sir Robert Peel: 18 December 1834 ^[a]  –1846*
• Lord George Bentinck: 1846–1847
• The Marquess of Granby: 9 February 1848 – 4 March 1848, elected at a party meeting (see § House of Commons, below)
• None: 1848–1849
• Jointly Benjamin Disraeli, the Marquess of Granby, and John Charles Herries: 1849–1852, ^[d] elected at a party meeting (see House of Commons)
• Benjamin Disraeli: 1852 –21 August 1876 (overall leader from 27 February 1868)
• Sir Stafford Northcote: 21 August 1876 – 24 June 1885, appointed by Prime Minister Beaconsfield
• Sir Michael Hicks Beach: 24 June 1885 – 3 August 1886, appointed by Prime Minister Salisbury
• Lord Randolph Churchill: 3 August 1886 – 14 January 1887, appointed by Prime Minister Salisbury
• William Henry Smith: 17 January 1887 – 6 October 1891, appointed by Prime Minister Salisbury
• Arthur Balfour: 1891 –13 January 1906, ^[e] appointed by Prime Minister Salisbury (overall leader from 1902)
• Joseph Chamberlain: 1906
• Arthur Balfour: 1906 –13 November 1911*
• Bonar Law: 13 November 1911 – 21 March 1921, elected at a party meeting (see House of Commons)(overall leader from 1916)
• Austen Chamberlain: 21 March 1921 – 23 October 1922, elected at a party meeting (see House of Commons)

Elections of Conservative leaders by party meeting

House of Commons

#	Date of meeting	Name of leader elected	Category attending meeting	Location of meeting	Chair	Proposer	Seconder	Refs
1	9 February 1848	The Marquess of Granby	Protectionist commoners	Residence of George Bankes	—	—	—	[9] [10]
2	1 February 1849	Benjamin Disraeli	—	Residence of the Lord Stanley of Bickerstaffe	—	—	—	[11]
		The Marquess of Granby
		John Charles Herries
3	13 November 1911	Bonar Law	Unionist Members of Parliament	Carlton Club, Pall Mall	Henry Chaplin, senior Privy Councillor on the Unionist benches (appointed 1885)	Walter Long	Austen Chamberlain	[12]
4	21 March 1921	Austen Chamberlain	Unionist Members of Parliament	Carlton Club, Pall Mall	Lord Edmund Talbot, Conservative Chief Whip	Captain Ernest George Pretyman	Sir Edward Coates: "a back bencher and one of the rank and file"	[13]
5	23 October 1922	Bonar Law	Unionist peers, MPs, and candidates	Hotel Cecil, The Strand	The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Leader of the House of Lords	The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston	Stanley Baldwin: "chosen ... to be the spokesman for the House of Commons"	[14]
6	28 May 1923	Stanley Baldwin	"Conservative Party"	Hotel Cecil, The Strand	The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Leader of the House of Lords	The Earl of Derby	Captain Ernest George Pretyman: "a member of the House of Commons who [had] been a colleague in that House of Mr Bonar Law for something over 25 years"	[15]
7	31 May 1937	Neville Chamberlain	"peers and MPs who receive the Conservative whip, ... prospective candidates who have been adopted by constituency associations, and ... members of the executive committee of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist associations from England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland."	Caxton Hall, Caxton Street	The Viscount Halifax, Leader of the House of Lords	The Earl of Derby	Winston Churchill (Privy Councillor since 1907)	[16]
8	9 October 1940	Winston Churchill	"Peers and MPs who receive the Conservative whip, ... prospective candidates who have been adopted by constituency associations, and ... members of the Executive Committee of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations from England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland."	London	The Viscount Halifax, Leader of the House of Lords	The Viscount Halifax	Sir George Courthope: "one of the senior back benchers of the party"	[17]
9	21 April 1955	Sir Anthony Eden	"Conservative and National Liberal members of the two Houses of Parliament, Conservative and National Liberal parliamentary candidates and members of the executive committee of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations"	Church House, Dean's Yard, Westminster	The Marquess of Salisbury, Leader of the House of Lords	The Marquess of Salisbury	Rab Butler (Privy Councillor since 1939)	[18]
10	22 January 1957	Harold Macmillan	"Conservative and Unionist members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, ... prospective parliamentary candidates and ... members of the executive committee of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations. National Liberal members of both Houses of Parliament and adopted prospective candidates were also present"	—	The Marquess of Salisbury, Leader of the House of Lords	The Marquess of Salisbury	Rab Butler (Privy Councillor since 1939)	[19]
11	11 November 1963	Alec Douglas-Home	"members of both Houses of Parliament taking the Conservative whip, prospective candidates who [had] been adopted by constituency associations, members of the executive of the mass party, and National Liberal MPs and adopted prospective candidates"	Church House, Dean's Yard, Westminster	The Lord Carrington, Leader of the House of Lords	The Lord Carrington	Geoffrey Lloyd: "the senior Conservative Privy Councillor in the Commons next in line to Sir Winston Churchill" (appointed 1943)	[20]

House of Lords

#	Date of meeting	Name of leader elected	Category attending meeting	Location of meeting	Chair	Proposer	Seconder	Notes
1	9 March 1846	The Lord Stanley of Bickerstaffe	Peers	Residence of the Duke of Richmond	The Earl of Eglinton	—	—	[21]
2	15 February 1869	The Earl Cairns	23 peers	—	The Earl of Malmesbury	The Earl of Malmesbury	—	[22]
3	26 February 1870	The Duke of Richmond	Peers	Carlton Club	—	The Marquess of Salisbury	The Earl of Derby	[23]
4	9 May 1881	The Marquess of Salisbury	Conservative members of the House of Lords	Residence of the Marquess of Abergavenny	The Marquess of Abergavenny	The Duke of Richmond	The Earl Cairns	[24]

Deputy Leaders of the Conservative Party

Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party is sometimes an official title of a senior Conservative politician of the United Kingdom.

Some are given this title officially by the party, such as Peter Lilley, ^[25] while others are given the title as an unofficial description by the media, such as William Hague. ^[26] The first politician to hold the office as such was Reginald Maudling, appointed by Edward Heath in 1965. ^[27] Distinct from being "second-in-command", there is formally no current position of deputy party leader in the party's hierarchy. ^[28]

The term has sometimes been mistakenly used to refer to the party's deputy chair. ^[29]

List of deputy leaders

Name	Term began	Term ended	Concurrent office(s)	Leader
Reginald Maudling	4 August 1965 [30]	18 July 1972 [31]	Deputy Leader of the Opposition (1965–1970) [32] Shadow Foreign Secretary (1965) Shadow Defence Secretary (1968–1969) Home Secretary (1970–1972)	Edward Heath
Not in use from 1972 to 1975
The Viscount Whitelaw	12 February 1975 [33]	7 August 1991 [34]	Deputy Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979) [35] Shadow Home Secretary (1976–1979) Home Secretary (1979–1983) Leader of the House of Lords (1983–1988) [36]	Margaret Thatcher
				John Major
Not in use from 1991 to 1998
Peter Lilley	2 June 1998 [37]	15 June 1999 [37]	Deputy Leader of the Opposition (1998–1999) [38]	William Hague
Not in use from 1999 to 2001
Michael Ancram	18 September 2001 [39]	6 December 2005 [39]	Deputy Leader of the Opposition (2001–2005) [40] Shadow Foreign Secretary (2001–2005) [39] Shadow Defence Secretary (2005) [39]	Iain Duncan Smith
				Michael Howard
Not in use since 2005

See also

• Politics portal
• United Kingdom portal
• Conservatism portal
• Lists portal

• 1922 Committee
• Leader of the Labour Party (UK)
• Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Notes

1. Date of the Tamworth Manifesto.
2. Died in office
3. Date on which Law became Leader of the House of Commons.
4. Granby resigned "either in the end of December [1851] or on one of the first days of January [1852]". ^[8]
5. Date on which Balfour failed to be elected in Manchester East.

References

1. "Tory leadership election live: Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick await final results". The Guardian. 2 November 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
2. "Constitution of the Conservative Party" (PDF). January 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 September 2021.
3. Alexandre-Collier, Agnès (1 November 2018). "Brexit reveals the fractures of the British Conservatives". Le Monde diplomatique (in French). Retrieved 5 September 2022.
4. Nevett, Joshua (12 August 2022). "Tory leadership election: Meet the overseas voters picking the next PM". BBC News.
5. Smith, Hannah (10 August 2022). "Who can vote in the Conservative leadership contest?".
6. "Rishi Sunak: A quick guide to the UK's new prime minister". BBC News. 24 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
7. Johnston, Neil (5 September 2022). "Leadership elections: Conservative Party" (PDF). House of Commons Library (UK). Retrieved 14 September 2022.
8. Monypenny, William Flavelle; Buckle, George Earle (1914). The life of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield, Volume III. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 312–3.
9. "A Cabinet Council was held at half-past 2 o'clock." Times [London, England] 10 Feb. 1848: 4. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 25 July 2014.
10. Malmesbury, The Right Hon. [James Howard Harris,] the [3rd] Earl of (1885). Memoirs of an Ex-Minister. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. pp. 151–2.
11. Monypenny, William Flavelle; Buckle, George Earle (1914). The life of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield, Volume III. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 138–9.
12. "The Unionist Leadership." Times [London, England] 14 Nov. 1911: 9. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 19 July 2014.
13. "Unionist M.P.s' New Leader." Times [London, England] 22 Mar. 1921: 12. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 19 July 2014.
14. "Unionists Elect Mr. Bonar Law." Times [London, England] 24 Oct. 1922: 18. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 25 July 2014.
15. "Conservative Leader." Times [London, England] 29 May 1923: 19. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 19 July 2014.
16. "The New Leader And The Old." Times [London, England] 1 June 1937: 17+. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 19 July 2014.
17. "Conservative Leader." Times [London, England] 10 Oct. 1940: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 19 July 2014.
18. Our Political Correspondent. "Sir A. Eden as Leader." Times [London, England] 22 Apr. 1955: 12. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 19 July 2014.
19. "Mr. Macmillan states Party philosophy". The Times. London. 23 January 1957.
20. "Prime Minister is Ageless". The Times . London. 12 November 1963. p. 12.
21. Malmesbury, The Right Hon. [James Howard Harris,] the [3rd] Earl of (1885). Memoirs of an Ex-Minister. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. p. 124.
22. Malmesbury, The Right Hon. [James Howard Harris,] the [3rd] Earl of (1885). Memoirs of an Ex-Minister. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. p. 645.
23. "We are enabled to state that, in compliance with." Times [London, England] 28 Feb. 1870: 9. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 26 July 2014.
24. "Meeting Of The Conservative Peers." Times [London, England] 10 May 1881: 10. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 25 July 2014.
25. "Peter Lilley, Member of Parliament for Hitchin and Harpenden". The Conservative Party. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2016. He stood for the Conservative Leadership in 1997; becoming Shadow Chancellor then Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party Responsible for Policy Renewal until 2000.
26. Andrew Porter (14 January 2009). "David Cameron anoints William Hague as his deputy". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
27. Blake, Robert (14 August 1965). "A Watershed in English Politics". The Illustrated London News . Vol. 247. p. 20. The most striking feature, however, of Mr. Heath's reconstruction is the appointment of a Deputy Leader. This is the first time that such a position has been created in the Conservative hierarchy [...]
28. Guardian editorial (17 June 2015). "The Guardian view on party deputy leaders: a job about nothing". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
29. Ann Gripper (11 May 2015). "David Cameron's 2015 cabinet: Meet the ministers appointed in all Conservative post-election reshuffle". Daily Mirror . Retrieved 17 July 2016. Robert Halfon will become deputy leader of the Conservative Party.
30. Ball, Stuart (1998). The Conservative Party Since 1945. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 187.
31. "Heath Faces Cabinet Reshuffle". 24 July 1972. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
32. Wood, J. R. T. (24 December 1966). A Matter of Weeks Rather Than Months: The Impasse between Harold Wilson and Ian Smith. ISBN   9781466934092 . Retrieved 3 July 2019.
33. Report on World Affairs. Vol. 56. Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. 1975. p. 71.
34. "Willie Whitelaw dies aged 81". The Guardian. Press Association. 1 July 1991. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
35. Young, Hugo (18 November 2008). The Hugo Young Papers: Thirty Years of British Politics – Off the Record. ISBN   9780141903606 . Retrieved 3 July 2019.
36. "Thatcher's No. 2 Cabinet minister resigns". Upi.com. 10 January 1988. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
37. "Parliamentary career for Lord Lilley". parliament.uk. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
38. Mark D'Arcy. "Democracy Live – Peter Lilley MP". BBC News. Archived from the original on 26 October 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
39. "Parliamentary career for The Marquess of Lothian". parliament.uk. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
40. "Peerage for the Rt Hon Michael Ancram". Gov.uk. 21 October 2010. Retrieved 3 July 2019.