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This article provides a list of United Kingdom Whig and allied party leaders from 1801 to 1859. During the 19th century, the Whigs, Radicals and Peelites gradually evolved into the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party was formally established in 1859 and continued to exist until it merged with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to create the Liberal Democrats.
When the United Kingdom came into existence, on 1 January 1801, the era of disciplined mass parties had not yet begun. Although individuals and families regarded themselves as belonging to a Whig or Tory tradition, actual political allegiance tended to be to family connections and to factions grouped behind a prominent political leader. Most of these loose associations of politicians, after the disappearance of almost any party bonds by about 1760 and the accession of George III, contained members from both Whig and Tory traditions.
In the first decade of the 19th century most politicians realigned themselves into fairly cohesive Whig and Tory parties. Thereafter individuals and groups might move between the two parties, but they both maintained a continuous existence (through a number of mergers and name changes). These two groups were the direct ancestors of the 21st-century Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties.
There were several stages in the consolidation of the parties:
There was only a leader of the Whig Party as a whole, when a party member (or the leader of an allied group like the Peelites) was Prime Minister or (from 1830) was the most recent Prime Minister from the party and was still in active politics. At other times the leaders in the House of Lords and House of Commons were of equal status and in theory jointly led the party.
When a new leader was required, with the party in government, the monarch selected him by appointing someone as First Lord of the Treasury.
When no overall party leader was a member of a House and a new leader was required in opposition, a leader emerged and was approved by party members in that House. Before 1807 faction leaders were not necessarily followed by all opposition Whigs. However, by 1807 the party in the House of Commons, as opposed to a faction or factions within it, had acquired recognised leaders.
| No. | Name | Constituency / Title | Took office | Left office |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | No recognised leader | — | 1801 | 1806 |
| 1 | William Grenville | 1st Baron Grenville | 11 February 1806 | 31 March 1807 |
| — | No recognised leader | — | 1807 | 1830 |
| 2 | Charles Grey | 2nd Earl Grey | 22 November 1830 | 16 July 1834 |
| 3 | William Lamb | 2nd Viscount Melbourne | 16 July 1834 | October 1842 |
| — | No recognised leader | — | 1842 | 1846 |
| 4 | Lord John Russell | City of London | 30 June 1846 | 19 December 1852 |
| 5 | George Hamilton-Gordon [lower-alpha 1] | 4th Earl of Aberdeen | 19 December 1852 | 6 February 1855 |
| 6 | The Viscount Palmerston [lower-alpha 2] | Tiverton | 6 February 1855 | 12 June 1859 |
Charles James Fox and Viscount Howick, as unofficial leaders of the party in the House of Commons from 1801 to 1807, led the largest of the anti-Pittite Whig groups. They were the successive government leaders of the House of Commons during the Ministry of All the Talents. Howick continued as a faction leader in opposition during 1807, until he inherited his peerage. From the appointment of George Ponsonby in 1808 the leaders were official.
| No. | Name | Constituency | Took office | Left office |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles James Fox [lower-alpha 3] | Westminster | 1801 | 1806 |
| 2 | Viscount Howick [lower-alpha 4] |
| 1806 | 1807 |
| 3 | George Ponsonby |
| 1808 | 1817 |
| 4 | George Tierney |
| 1818 | 1821 |
| — | No recognised leader | — | 1821 | 1830 |
| 5 | Viscount Althorp [lower-alpha 5] | Northamptonshire | 1830 | 1834 |
| 6 | Lord John Russell |
| 1834 | 1855 |
| 7 | The Viscount Palmerston [lower-alpha 2] | Tiverton | 1855 | 1859 |
No attempt is made to include a leader in the House of Lords in the table below before 1830, except during the Ministry of All the Talents. Earl Grey was probably the leading Whig in the House from 1807, particularly once Lord Grenville retired in 1817.
| No. | Name | Title | Took office | Left office |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | No recognised leader | — | 1801 | 1806 |
| 1 | William Grenville | 1st Baron Grenville | 11 February 1806 | 31 March 1807 |
| — | No recognised leader | — | 1807 | 1830 |
| 2 | Charles Grey | 2nd Earl Grey | 22 November 1830 | 16 July 1834 |
| 3 | William Lamb | 2nd Viscount Melbourne | 16 July 1834 | October 1842 |
| 4 | Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice | 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne | October 1842 | 19 December 1852 |
| 5 | George Hamilton-Gordon [lower-alpha 1] | 4th Earl of Aberdeen | 19 December 1852 | 6 February 1855 |
| 6 | Granville Leveson-Gower | 2nd Earl Granville | 1855 | 1859 |
The Whigs were a political party in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the Whigs contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs became the Liberal Party when it merged with the Peelites and Radicals in the 1850s. Many Whigs left the Liberal Party in 1886 over the issue of Irish Home Rule to form the Liberal Unionist Party, which merged into the Conservative Party in 1912.
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey,, known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was a British Whig politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. He was a descendant of the House of Grey and the namesake of Earl Grey tea. Grey was a long-time leader of multiple reform movements. During his time as prime minister, his government brought about two notable reforms. The Reform Act 1832 enacted parliamentary reform, greatly increasing the electorate of the House of Commons.
Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, was a British Tory statesman who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1804 and as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1789 to 1801.
William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, was a British Pittite Tory politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the Whigs for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars. As prime minister, his most significant achievement was the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. However, his government failed to either make peace with France or to accomplish Catholic emancipation and it was dismissed in the same year.
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George Tierney PC was an Irish Whig politician. For much of his career he was in opposition to the governments of William Pitt and Lord Liverpool. From 1818 to 1821 he was Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.
The 1806 United Kingdom general election was the election of members to the 3rd Parliament of the United Kingdom. This was the second general election to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
The 1807 United Kingdom general election was the third general election to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
The 1812 United Kingdom general election was the fourth general election to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
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The Bedford Whigs were an 18th-century British political faction, led by John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. Other than Bedford himself, notable members included John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich; Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Gower; Richard Rigby, who served as principal Commons manager for the group; Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth; Edward Thurlow; and George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough
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In the first Parliament to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801, the first House of Commons of the United Kingdom was composed of all 558 members of the former Parliament of Great Britain and 100 of the members of the House of Commons of Ireland.
The 1768 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 13th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707.
Foxite was a late 18th-century British political label for Whig followers of Charles James Fox.
The Cobhamite faction were an 18th-century British political faction built around Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham and his supporters. Among its members, the group included the future Prime Ministers William Pitt and George Grenville. They had a general Whig philosophy and were at first supporters of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole but later became opponents of his administration.
