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Conservative Party Leaders since 1809
Until 1922 there was no formal "Leader of the Conservative Party". The leaders of Conservative MPs and Conservative peers were regarded as coequal unless one of them was either the Prime Minister or a former Prime Minister, or if a particular crisis (as in 1846 - 1847 or 1916) had resulted in one clearly asserting authority over the other. In the periods when this was not the case (1881 - 1885, 1911 - 1916, 1921 - 1922) there was no clear "Leader of the Conservative Party" - this contributed to some of the internal party conflict at the time.
In 1911 the Parliament Act reduced the power of the Lords and it seemed likely that the leader in the Commons would be preeminent, however this was not formally recognised for another eleven years (and there were several occasions when members of the Lords were strongly considered for the leadership of the whole party after this time). From 1922 an overall leader has been formally elected by a joint meeting of MPs, Peers and prospective parliamentary candidates, even when the party is in opposition. Initially until 1965 this election consisted of the individual who had been already asked by the monarch to form a government being ratified by the meeting (the leadership did not fall vacant at any time when the party was in opposition in this period), however more recently a succession of ballots have been held in order to chose between competing candidates.
The distinction of the leaders is often overlooked by many and there are lists in circulation that assume the eventual single leader who emerged after a period of coequal leadership was the leader from the outset. However this was not always the case - for example in 1881 it was widely expected that the Commons leader Sir Stafford Northcote would be the next Conservative Prime Minister but by the time the party had returned to government in 1885 political developments had resulted in the Lords leader Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury having the stronger claimant for the premiership. (courtesy of Wikipedia)
- 1809-12 Spencer Perceval
- 1812-27 Lord Liverpool
- 1827-27 George Canning
- 1827-28 Viscount Goderich
- 1828-34 Duke of Wellington
- 1834-46 Sir Robert Peel
- 1846-68 Earl of Derby
- 1868-81 Benjamin Disraeli
- 1881-1902 Marquess of Salisbury
- 1902-11 Arthur Balfour
- 1911-21 Andrew Bonar Law
- 1921-22 Austen Chamberlain
- 1922-23 Andrew Bonar Law
- 1923-37 Stanley Baldwin
- 1937-40 Neville Chamberlain
- 1940-55 Winston Churchill
- 1955-57 Sir Anthony Eden
- 1963-65 Sir Alec Douglas-Home
- 1965-75 Edward Heath
- 1975-90 Margaret Thatcher
- 1990-97 John Major
- 1997-2001 William Hague
- 2001-03 Iain Duncan Smith
- 2003-05 Michael Howard
- 2005- David Cameron
Information courtesy of www.election.demon.co.uk & Wikipedia
Conservative Party Chairmen since 1900
- 1911-16 A Steel-Maitland
- 1916-23 Sir G Younger
- 1923-26 S Jackson
- 1926-30 J Davidson
- 1930-31 Neville Chamberlain
- 1931-36 Lord Stonehaven
- 1936-42 Sir D Hacking
- 1942-44 T Dugdale
- 1944-46 R Assheton
- 1946-55 Lord Woolton
- 1955-57 Oliver Poole
- 1957-59 Lord Hailsham
- 1959-61 R A Butler
- 1961-63 Iain Macleod (April-Oct 1963 jointly with Lord poole)
- 1963-65 Viscount Blakenham
- 1965-67 Edward du Cann
- 1967-70 Anthony Barber
- 1970-72 Peter Thomas
- 1972-74 Lord Carrington
- 1974-75 William Whitelaw
- 1975-81 Lord Thorneycroft
- 1981-83 Cecil Parkinson
- 1983-85 John Gummer
- 1985-87 Norman Tebbit
- 1987-89 Peter Brooke
- 1989-90 Kenneth Baker
- 1990-92 Chris Patten
- 1992-94 Sir Norman Fowler
- 1994-95 Jeremy Hanley
- 1995-97 Brian Mawhinney
- 1997-98 Lord Parkinson
- 1998-2001 Michael Ancram
- 2001-02 David Davis
- 2002-03 Theresa May
- 2003-05 Liam Fox
- 2005- Francis Maude
Conservative Party Chief Whips since 1900
- 1900 Sir W Walrond
- 1902 Sir A Acland Hood
- 1911 Lord Balcarres
- 1913 Lord E Talbot
- 1921 L Wilson
- 1923 Sir B Eyres-Monsell
- 1931 David MArgesson
- 1941 James Stuart
- 1948 P Buchan-Hepburn
- 1951 Edward Heath
- 1959 Martin Redmayne
- 1964 William Whitelaw
- 1970 Francis Pym
- 1973 Humphrey Atkins
- 1979 Michael Jopling
- 1983 John Wakeham
- 1987 David Waddington
- 1989 Tim Renton
- 1990 richard Ryder
- 1994 Alistair Goodlad
- 1997 James Arbuthnot
- 2001 David Maclean
- 2005 Patrick McLoughlin
Chairmen of the 1922 Committee since 1923
- 1923-32 Sir G Rentoul
- 1932-35 W Morrison
- 1935-39 Sir H OÕNeill
- 1939-40 Sir A Somerville
- 1939-40 W Spens
- 1940-44 A Erskine Hill
- 1944-45 J McEwen
- 1945-51 Sir A Gridley
- 1951-55 D Walker-Smith
- 1955-64 J Morrison
- 1964-66 Sir W Anstruther-Gray
- 1966-70 Sir A Harvey
- 1970-72 Sir Harry Legge-Bourke
- 1972-84 Edward du Cann
- 1984-92 Cranley Onslow
- 1992-97 Sir Marcus Fox
- 1997-2001 Sir Archie Hamilton
- 2001- Sir Michael Spicer
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