| Post: | Leader |
| Body: | the Liberal Democrats |
| Incumbent: | Sir Ed Davey |
| Incumbentsince: | 27 August 2020 |
| Formation: | 3 March 1988 |
| Appointer: | Liberal Democrats membership |
| Inaugural: | David Steel and Bob Maclennan |
The Liberal Democrats are a political party in the United Kingdom. Party members elect the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the head and highest-ranking member of the party. Liberal Democrat members of Parliament also elect a deputy leader of the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons, often colloquially referred to as the deputy leader. Under the federal constitution of the Liberal Democrats the leader is required to be a member of the House of Commons.
Before the election of the first federal leader of the party (the Liberal Democrats having a federal structure in their internal party organisation), the leaders of the two parties which merged to form the Liberal Democrats, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), served as joint interim leaders: David Steel and Bob Maclennan respectively.
If the leader dies, resigns or loses their seat in Parliament, the deputy leader (if there is one) serves as interim leader until a leadership election takes place. This has occurred three times, with Menzies Campbell serving as interim leader following the resignation of Charles Kennedy (Campbell was elected leader in the ensuing election) and Vince Cable serving as interim leader following Campbell's resignation. Jo Swinson lost her seat in the general election held on 12 December 2019, thus ceasing to be leader; Deputy Leader Ed Davey and Party President Sal Brinton became acting co-leaders.[1] Brinton was replaced by Mark Pack following his assuming the office of party president on 1 January 2020. Davey won the Leadership election and became Leader on 27 August 2020 at the 2020 Liberal Democrats leadership election.
| Leader (Birth–Death) | width=65 | Portrait | width=25% | Constituency | width=12% | Took office | width=12% | Left office | Prime Minister | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Steel and Robert Maclennan were jointly Acting Leader during this interim from the formation of the party on 3 March 1988. | Thatcher | ||||||||||
| 1 | Paddy Ashdown (1941–2018) | Yeovil | 16 July 1988 (Elected) | 9 August 1999 | |||||||
| height=20 style="background-color: ; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" | |||||||||||
| Major | |||||||||||
| height=20 style="background-color: ; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" | Blair | ||||||||||
| 2 | Charles Kennedy (1959–2015) | Ross, Skye and Inverness West (1999–2005) Ross, Skye and Lochaber (2005–2006) | 9 August 1999 (Elected) | 7 January 2006 | |||||||
| Sir Menzies Campbell was Acting Leader during this interim. | |||||||||||
| 3 | Sir Menzies Campbell (1941–) | North East Fife | 2 March 2006 (Elected) | 15 October 2007 | height=40 style="background-color: ; border-top:solid 0 gray" | ||||||
| height=40 style="background-color: ; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" | Brown | ||||||||||
| Vince Cable was Acting Leader during this interim. | |||||||||||
| 4 | Nick Clegg (1967–) | Sheffield Hallam | 18 December 2007 (Elected) | 16 July 2015 | |||||||
| height=40 style="background-color: ; border-top:solid 0 gray" | |||||||||||
| height=40 style="background-color: ; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" | Cameron | ||||||||||
| 5 | Tim Farron (1970–) | Westmorland and Lonsdale | 16 July 2015 (Elected) | 20 July 2017 | height=40 style="background-color: ; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" | ||||||
| May | |||||||||||
| 6 | Sir Vince Cable (1943–) | Twickenham | 20 July 2017 (Unopposed) | 22 July 2019 | |||||||
| 7 | Jo Swinson (1980–) | East Dunbartonshire | 22 July 2019 (Elected) | 13 December 2019 | height=50 style="background-color: ; border-top:solid 0 gray" | ||||||
| Johnson | |||||||||||
| Sir Ed Davey and The Baroness Brinton were jointly Acting Leader during this interim prior to 31 December 2019. | |||||||||||
| Sir Ed Davey and Mark Pack were jointly Acting Leader during this interim from 1 January 2020. | |||||||||||
| 8 | Sir Ed Davey (1965–) | Kingston and Surbiton | 27 August 2020 (Elected) | Incumbent | height=20 style="background-color: ; border-top:solid 0 gray" | ||||||
| Truss | |||||||||||
| Sunak | |||||||||||
| Starmer | |||||||||||
See main article: Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords.