| Election Name: | 1925 Reform Party leadership election |
| Country: | New Zealand |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Next Election: | 1936 New Zealand National Party leadership election |
| Next Year: | 1936 (Nat) |
| Election Date: | 27 May 1925 |
| Candidate1: | Gordon Coates |
| Popular Vote1: | ≥19 |
| Colour1: | 00BB00 |
| Candidate2: | William Nosworthy |
| Popular Vote2: | <19 |
| Colour2: | 00BB00 |
| Leader | |
| Posttitle: | Leader after election |
| Before Election: | Sir Francis Bell (acting) |
| After Election: | Gordon Coates |
An election for the leadership of the Reform Party was held on 27 May 1925 to choose the next leader of the party. The election was won by MP and cabinet minister Gordon Coates.
After an inconclusive result at the, the Reform Party government was reliant on several independent MPs to maintain power. Prime Minister William Massey had been in bad health and was progressively weakened by cancer during most of 1924 and by October of that year he was forced to relinquish many of his duties. He had an operation on 30 March 1925 which was unsuccessful and he died of cancer on 10 May 1925. Immediately after Massey's death the press began speculating as to his successor. The parliament was not then in session and the Reform Party had no clearly designated leadership successor. Massey had probably advised the Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, to call on Sir Francis Bell as he had been acting Prime Minister before and, at 74 years of age, had no personal political ambitions. Bell was sworn in on 14 May and became caretaker Prime Minister. Bell ruled himself out as a permanent leader and made a point of scrupulously avoiding from any activity or decisions not of a stop-gap nature. His declination left the field open for the Reform Party caucus to freely choose a new leader.
Several candidates were named as possibilities to succeed Massey as party leader:[1]
A caucus meeting was held in the afternoon of 27 May 1925. MP Douglas Lysnar and Stewart (who was still overseas) were the only absences. Bell chaired the meeting which began at 2:30pm and an hour long discussion ensued regarding leadership of the party. The meeting was informed that Stewart had cabled from New York that he did not wish to be a candidate. McLeod, having realised he had no chance of winning, also withdrew from consideration. Two names were nominated, those of Coates and Nosworthy. A ballot was held which resulted in Coates winning a majority. An independent MP who supported Reform, Allen Bell, also attended and cast a vote in the ballot.[4] The precise result was not revealed by the scrutineer (Bell), but was thought ho have been a decisive margin.
News of the result came as no surprise to the press in their reports of the result. Soon after becoming leader Coates rejected an approach from the Liberal Party for a "fusion" of the two parties to better oppose the Labour Party. With the help of political organiser Albert Davy, Coates won a huge victory at the . However his popularity declined and internal ructions in the party over policy led to Davy leaving. Davy set up a new party, the United Party, made mostly of remnants of the Liberal Party and at the Coates' government was defeated. He continued to lead the party in opposition and in 1931, after United lost support from the Labour Party who opposed their policy of retrenchment, he gave support in the house to United. United and Reform contested the election as a coalition and were re-elected, but though Reform were the larger of the two, United leader George Forbes still remained Prime Minister. The United–Reform Coalition was defeated at the . Coates continued as leader of the Reform Party until 1936 when it was absorbed into the new National Party.