President of the Liberal Democrats

President of the Liberal Democrats
Incumbent The Lord Pack since 1 January 2020
Member of	Federal Board
Reports to	Liberal Democrats
Appointer	Liberal Democrats
Term length	3 Years; Renewable once
Formation	1988
First holder	Ian Wrigglesworth
Deputy	Vice President of the Liberal Democrats

The president of the Liberal Democrats chairs the Federal Board of the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom.

The responsibilities of the president are similar to that of chairman of the Conservative Party or chairman of the Labour Party,^{[ citation needed ]} although the role is elected by the membership for a fixed term.

They are elected in an all-member ballot by Liberal Democrat party members for a three-year term (previously two-year terms). They may serve a maximum of two three-year terms. The next scheduled contest will occur in Autumn 2025 with the winner beginning their term of office on 1 January 2026. The election is conducted using the single transferable vote.

The current president is Mark Pack, Baron Pack, who was elected in 2019 and took office on 1 January 2020. His replacement, Josh Babarinde, is due to take office on 1 January 2026.

Eligibility to stand

In order to be a candidate for president, the candidate must be a member of the Liberal Democrats and secure the nomination of not less than 200 members in not less than 20 local parties (including, for this purpose, the specified associated organisations representing youth or students). ^[1]

List of party presidents to date

President			Term of Office		Elections	Leader
		Ian Wrigglesworth	1 January 1989	31 December 1990	—	Paddy Ashdown
		Charles Kennedy MP for Ross, Cromarty and Skye	1 January 1991	31 December 1994	1991	Paddy Ashdown
		Bob Maclennan MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross	1 January 1995	31 December 1998	1997	Paddy Ashdown
		Diana Maddock Baroness Maddock	1 January 1999	31 December 2000	—	Paddy Ashdown Charles Kennedy
		Navnit Dholakia Baron Dholakia	1 January 2001	31 December 2004	2001	Charles Kennedy
		Simon Hughes MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey	1 January 2005	1 January 2009	2005	Charles Kennedy Menzies Campbell Nick Clegg
		Rosalind Scott Baroness Scott of Needham Market	1 January 2009	1 January 2011	2010	Nick Clegg
		Tim Farron MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale	1 January 2011	1 January 2015	—	Nick Clegg
		Sal Brinton Baroness Brinton	1 January 2015	1 January 2020	2015 2017 2019	Nick Clegg Tim Farron Vince Cable Jo Swinson
		Mark Pack Baron Pack [a]	1 January 2020	Incumbent	2024	Ed Davey
		Josh Babarinde MP for Eastbourne	Assuming office 1 January 2026			Ed Davey

	Member of the House of Commons
	Member of the House of Lords
	Non-parliamentarian

Timeline

Election results

Elections in the 2020s

2025

Candidate	First Round
	Votes	%
Josh Babarinde	3,742	68.79%
Prue Bray	1,698	31.21%
Turnout/Total	5,440	9.1%

2022

Mark Pack was re-elected president of the Liberal Democrats. ^[3]

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%
Mark Pack	4,968	54.5%
Lucy Nethsingha	2,194	24.2%
Liz Webster	1,936	21.3%
Turnout/Total	9,099	14.05% [3]

Elections in the 2010s

2019

Mark Pack was elected president of the Liberal Democrats. ^[4]

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%
Mark Pack	14,381	58.6%
Christine Jardine	10,164	41.4%
Turnout/Total	24,545	23.1% [5]

2016

Sal Brinton was returned unopposed. ^{[6] [7]}

2014

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%	Transfers	Votes	%
Sal Brinton	7,865	46.86	+2,323	10,188	62.40
Daisy Cooper	4,530	26.98	+1,608	6,138	37.59
Liz Lynne	4,389	26.14
Turnout/Total	16,784	38.9

There were 25 spoilt/rejected ballots. ^[8]

2012

Tim Farron was returned unopposed. ^[9]

2010

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%
Tim Farron	14,593	52.98
Susan Kramer	12,950	47.01
Turnout/Total	27,543	41.9

There were 64 spoilt/rejected ballots.

Elections in the 2000s

2008

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%
Ros Scott	20,736	72.04
Lembit Öpik	6,247	21.70
Chandila Fernando	1,799	6.25
Turnout/Total	28,782	47.8

There were 49 spoilt/rejected ballots. ^[10]

2006

Simon Hughes was returned unopposed.

2004

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%
Simon Hughes	24,333	70.86
Lembit Öpik	10,002	29.13
Turnout/Total	34,335	29.13

There were 144 spoilt/rejected ballots. ^[11]

2002

Navnit Dholakia was returned unopposed.

2000

Navnit Dholakia was returned unopposed.

Elections in the 1990s

1998

Diana Maddock was returned unopposed.

1996

Bob Maclennan was returned unopposed.

1994

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%
Bob Maclennan	18,080	53.77
Don Foster	8,979	26.61
Martin Thomas	6,561	19.51
Turnout/Total	33,620	33.4

There were 114 spoilt/rejected ballots.

1992

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%
Charles Kennedy	25,956	70.45
Martin Thomas	10,813	29.35
Turnout/Total	36,840	36.2

There were 71 spoilt/rejected ballots.

1990

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%
Charles Kennedy	24,648	84.24
Tim Clement-Jones	4,818	16.11
Brian Grocott	436	1.45
Turnout/Total	29,902	36.3

There were 55 spoilt/rejected ballots.

Elections in the 1980s

1988

Candidate	First round
	Votes	%
Ian Wrigglesworth	28,638	50.22
Des Wilson	21,906	38.41
Gwynoro Jones	6,479	11.36
Turnout/Total	57,023	71.2

There were 448 spoilt/rejected ballots.

Vice President

The Vice President's role is to increase engagement with ethnic minority communities; the first Vice President was first elected in 2019. The role was also known as the "Vice President BaME" prior to 2021. ^{[12] [13] [14]}

Prior to 2021, the vice president was elected by the Federal Board rather than by party members, and did not have a vote at the Federal Board. ^[15]

List of party vice presidents to date

Term	Name(s)		Constituency (where applicable)
2019–21		Isabelle Parasram
2021–25		Amna Ahmad
2026–		Victoria Collins	Harpenden and Berkhamsted

	Member of the House of Commons
	Member of the House of Lords
	Non-parliamentarian

Elections

2025

Candidate	Votes
Victoria Collins	2788
Kamran Hussain	2102

2022

Amna Ahmad was reelected unopposed. ^[16]

2021

Candidate	Vote stage [17]
	1	2	3	4
Amna Ahmad	1814	1890	2017	2123
Roderick Lynch	1154	1192	1277	1684
Marisha Ray	672	702	792
Rabi Martins	407	436	473
Julliet Makhapila	354	373
Tahir Maher	221

See also

• Leader of the Liberal Democrats
• Deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats

Notes and references

Notes

1. Non-parliamentarian until appointed to the Lords in 2025. ^[2]

References

1. "The Federal Constitution of the Liberal Democrats" (PDF). September 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 January 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
2. "Lord Pack". UK Parliament . Retrieved 29 January 2025.
3. "The results of the 2022 Presidential Election". Liberal Democrats. 16 November 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
4. "Meet our new party president". Liberal Democrats. 2019-12-14. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
5. Based on party membership reported as 106,575 - https://www.markpack.org.uk/143767/liberal-democrat-membership-figures/
6. "Lib Dems publish timetable for 2016 Party President election". 19 September 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
7. "Sal Brinton re-elected unopposed as Lib Dem President". 10 November 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
8. "Lib Dems elect new party president". BBC News. 29 November 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
9. "Tim Farron". 10 May 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
10. Summers, Deborah (10 November 2008). "Defeated Öpik vows to back Lib Dem president". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
11. "Hughes is new Lib Dem president". 2 September 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2018– via news.bbc.co.uk.
12. "Vice President". Lib Dems.
13. Parasram, Isabella (16 March 2021). "Conference proposal to reform the role of party Vice-President". Lib Dem Voice.
14. Lindsay, Caron (20 March 2019). "Isabelle Parasram elected as Lib Dems' first Vice President BAME". Lib Dem Voice.
15. "F9: Changes to the Role of the Vice-President". libdems.org.uk. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
16. "Vice President 2022". Lib Dems.
17. "2021 Vice President Election". Lib Dems.