List of speakers of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom explained

The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The office was established by the Acts of Union 1707, which combined the Irish House of Commons and House of Commons of England, forming the modern Commons.^[1]

A speaker is elected at the beginning of every parliamentary term and has no term limits. Upon being elected, it is by convention that they disaffiliate themselves with any political parties.^[2] As the speaker remains a member of parliament (MP) for their constituency, there is a gentlemen's agreement between major political parties to not run candidates in the speaker's constituency.^[3]

The incumbent speaker is Lindsay Hoyle, MP for Chorley, who assumed office on 4 November 2019.^[4]

List of speakers

House of Commons of Great Britain, 1707–1800

The Kingdom of Great Britain was created by the Acts of Union 1707. At the beginning of 1801, Great Britain was combined with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a single House of Commons serving the whole kingdom.

John Smith, Speaker of the House of Commons of England since October 1705, was elected the first Speaker of the House of Commons of Great Britain.

Portrait	Name	Term of office		Election(s)^[5] Parliament(s)		Retirement peerage
	John Smith	1707	1708	(1707)	1	—
	Sir Richard Onslow	1708	1710	(1708)	2	Baron Onslow
	William Bromley	1710	1713	(1710)	3	—
	Sir Thomas Hanmer	1714	1715	(1714)	4	—
	Sir Spencer Compton	1715	1727	(1715) (1722)	5 6	Baron Wilmington
	Arthur Onslow	1728	1761	(1728) (1735) (1741) (1747) (1754)	7 8 9 10 11
	Sir John Cust	1761	1770	(1761) (1768)	12 13
	Sir Fletcher Norton	1770	1780	1770 (1774)	13 14	Baron Grantley
	Charles Wolfran Cornwall	1780	1789^†	1780 (1784)	15 16
	William Wyndham Grenville	1789	1789	1789^[6]		Baron Grenville
	Henry Addington	1789		1789 (1790) (1796)	16 17 18	Viscount Sidmouth

House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801. In 1922 the Irish Free State ceased to be part of the UK. The official name of the United Kingdom was changed to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in 1927.

Portrait	Name	Term of office		Election(s) Parliament(s)		Party		Retirement peerage
	Henry Addington	1801	1801	( 1801)	1		Tory	Viscount Sidmouth
	Sir John Mitford	1801	1802	( 1801)	1		Tory	Baron Redesdale
	Charles Abbot	1802	1817	( 1802) ( 1802) (1806)^[7] (1807)^[8] (1812)^[9]	1 2 3 4 5		Tory	Baron Colchester
	Sir Charles Manners-Sutton	1817	1835	1817^[10] (1819)^[11] (1820)^[12] (1826)^[13] (1830)^[14] (1831)^[15] 1833^[16]	5 6 7 8 9 10 11		Tory	Viscount Canterbury
	James Abercromby	1835	1839	1835^[17] (1837)^[18]	12 13		Whig	Baron Dunfermline
	Charles Shaw-Lefevre	1839	1857	1839^[19] (1841)^[20] (1847)^[21] (1852)^[22]	13 14 15 16		Whig	Viscount Eversley
	John Evelyn Denison	1857	1872	(1857)^[23] (1859)^[24] (1866)^[25] (1868)^[26]	17 18 19 20		Liberal	Viscount Ossington
	Sir Henry Brand	1872	1884	(1872)^[27] (1874)^[28] (1880)^[29]	20 21 22		Liberal	Viscount Hampden
	Arthur Peel	1884	1895	(1884)^[30] ( 1886)^[31] ( 1886)^[32] (1892)^[33]	22 23 24 25		Liberal	Viscount Peel
	William Court Gully	1895	1905	1895^[34] ( 1895)^[35] (1900)^[36]	25 26 27		Liberal	Viscount Selby
	James Lowther	1905	1921	(1905)^[37] (1906)^[38] (1910)^[39] (1911)^[40] (1919)^[41]	27 28 29 30 31		Conservative	Viscount Ullswater
	John Henry Whitley	1921	1928	(1921) (1922)^[42] ( 1924)^[43] ( 1924)	31 32 33 34		Liberal
	Edward FitzRoy	1928	1943^†	(1928)^[44] (1929) (1931)^[45] (1935)^[46]	34 35 36 37		Conservative
	Douglas Clifton Brown	1943	1951	(1943)^[47] (1945)^[48] (1950)^[49]	37 38 39		Conservative	Viscount Ruffside
	William Morrison	1951	1959	1951^[50] (1955)^[51]	40 41		Conservative	Viscount Dunrossil
	Sir Harry Hylton-Foster	1959	1965^†	(1959)^[52] (1964)^[53]	42 43		Conservative
	Horace King	1965	1971	(1965)^[54] (1966)^[55] (1970)^[56]	43 44 45		Labour	Baron Maybray-King for Life
	Selwyn Lloyd	1971	1976	1971^[57] ( 1974)^[58] ( 1974)^[59]	45 46 47		Conservative	Baron Selwyn-Lloyd for Life
	George Thomas	1976	1983	(1976)^[60] (1979)^[61]	47 48		Labour	Viscount Tonypandy
	Bernard Weatherill	1983	1992	(1983)^[62] (1987)^[63]	49 50		Conservative	Baron Weatherill for Life
	Betty Boothroyd	1992	2000	1992^[64] (1997)^[65]	51 52		Labour	Baroness Boothroyd for Life
	Michael Martin	2000	2009	2000^[66] (2001)^[67] (2005)^[68]	52 53 54		Labour	Baron Martin of Springburn for Life
	John Bercow	2009	2019	2009^[69] (2010)^[70] (2015)^[71] (2017)^[72]	54 55 56 57		Conservative	—
	Sir Lindsay Hoyle^[73]	2019	Incumbent	2019^[74] ( 2019)^[75] (2024)^[76]	57 58 59		Labour	—

Bibliography

• Book: Laundy, Philip . The Office of Speaker . Cassell & Company . 1964.
• Book: Marsden, Philip . The Officers of the Commons 1363–1978 . Her Majesty's Stationery Office . 1979.
• Book: Twentieth Century Political Facts 1900–2000 . David . Butler . Gareth . Butler . Macmillan Press . 2000 . 0-333-77221-0 . Hardcover.
• Book: Cobbett, Richard. The Parliamentary History of England.
• Book: British Historical Facts 1830–1900 . Chris . Cook . Brendan . Keith . Macmillan Press . 1975.
• Book: British Historical Facts 1760–1830 . Chris . Cook . John . Stevenson . Macmillan Press . 1980 . 0-333-21512-5 . registration .
• Book: Venning, Timothy . Compendium of British Office Holders . Palgrave Macmillan . 2005 . 978-1-4039-2045-4.

Notes and References

1. Book: The Statutes at Large : Latin: Anno tricesimo tertio George III Latin: Regis . 1794 . Pickering . Danby . XXXIX . Cambridge . 32, 33 . CAP. XIII An act to prevent acts of parliament from taking effect from a time prior to the passing thereof . 29 January 2021 . https://books.google.com/books?id=XwbC08mcZ-4C&pg=PA32 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230320201653/https://books.google.com/books?id=XwbC08mcZ-4C&pg=PA32 . live . 20 March 2023. (33 Geo. 3. c. 13: "Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793")
2. Web site: November 2012 . THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS . 2024-07-26 . UK Parliament.
3. Web site: Rules and traditions of Parliament . 2024-07-26 . UK Parliament.
4. Web site: 2019-11-04 . Sir Lindsay Hoyle elected Speaker of House of Commons . 2024-07-26 . en-GB.
5. Book: Smith, Henry Stooks. 1845. The Parliaments of England. Elections for Speaker. 2. 205. 17 November 2019.
6. Book: Journals of the House of Commons. 1788. 44. 45. 15 November 2019.
7. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 15 December 1806. 8. 3–12.
8. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 22 June 1807. 9. 567–74.
9. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 24 November 1812. 24. 2–8.
10. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 2 June 1817. 36. 843–55.
11. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 14 January 1819. 39. 3–15.
12. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 21 April 1820. 1. 2–9.
13. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 14 November 1826. 16. 2–7.
14. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 26 October 1830. 1. 2–5.
15. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 14 June 1831. 4. 73–79.
16. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 29 January 1833. 15. 35–83.
17. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 19 February 1835. 26. 3–59.
18. Opening of Parliament – Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 15 November 1837. 39. 3–12.
19. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 27 May 1839. 47. 1034–56.
20. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 19 August 1841. 59. 3–11.
21. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 18 November 1847. 95. 3–8.
22. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 4 November 1852. 123. 3–13.
23. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 30 April 1857. 145. 4–11.
24. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 31 May 1859. 154. 4–10.
25. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 1 February 1866. 181. 4–17.
26. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 10 December 1868. 194. 4–11.
27. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 9 February 1872. 209. 181–91.
28. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 5 March 1874. 218. 5–14.
29. Choice of a Speaker. House of Commons. 29 April 1880. 252. 5–14.
30. Election of a Speaker. House of Commons. 26 February 1884. 285. 17–30.
31. Election of a Speaker. House of Commons. 12 January 1886. 302. 5–18.
32. Election of a Speaker. House of Commons. 5 August 1886. 308. 4–12.
33. Election of a Speaker. House of Commons. 4 August 1892. 7. 5–16.
34. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 10 April 1895. 32. 1369–96.
35. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 12 August 1895. 36. 4–10.
36. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 3 December 1900. 88. 4–12.
37. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 8 June 1905. 147. 1064–76.
38. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 13 February 1906. 152. 4–12.
39. Preamble. House of Commons. 15 February 1910. 14. 1–12.
40. Preamble. House of Commons. 31 January 1911. 21. 1–18.
41. Preamble. House of Commons. 4 February 1919. 112. 1–16.
42. Summary of Day. House of Commons. 20 November 1922. 159. 1–12.
43. Preamble. House of Commons. 8 January 1924. 169. 1–16.
44. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 20 June 1928. 218. 1719–28.
45. Preamble. House of Commons. 3 November 1931. 259. 1–12.
46. Preamble. House of Commons. 26 November 1935. 307. 1–12.
47. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 9 March 1943. 387. 613–30.
48. Preamble. House of Commons. 1 August 1945. 413. 1–14.
49. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 1 March 1950. 472. 2–10.
50. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 31 October 1951. 493. 2–24.
51. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 7 June 1955. 542. 1–12.
52. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 20 October 1959. 612. 2–18.
53. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 27 October 1964. 701. 2–10.
54. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 26 October 1965. 718. 1–17.
55. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 18 April 1966. 727. 2–16.
56. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 29 June 1970. 803. 2–14.
57. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 12 January 1971. 809. 1–34.
58. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 6 March 1974. 870. 2–16.
59. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 22 October 1974. 880. 2–15.
60. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 3 February 1976. 904. 1151–70.
61. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 9 May 1979. 967. 2–18.
62. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 15 June 1983. 44. 2–16.
63. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 17 June 1987. 118. 2–14.
64. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 27 April 1992. 207. 2–26.
65. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 7 May 1997. 294. 2–12.
66. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 23 October 2000. 355. 1–106.
67. Election of Speaker. House of Commons. 13 June 2001. 370. 2–10.
68. Web site: House of Commons Hansard Debates for 11 May 2005 (pt 1) . Hansard . 17 Dec 2019.
69. Web site: Election of Speaker . Hansard . 17 Dec 2019.
70. Web site: Election of Speaker . Hansard . 17 Dec 2019.
71. Web site: Election of Speaker . Hansard . 17 Dec 2019.
72. Web site: Election of Speaker . Hansard . 17 Dec 2019.
73. News: Hoyle re-elected Commons Speaker as MPs return. 2019-12-17. BBC News. 2020-03-31. en-GB.
74. Web site: Election of Speaker . Hansard . 17 Dec 2019.
75. Web site: Election of Speaker . Hansard . 17 Dec 2019.
76. Web site: Election of Speaker . Hansard . 10 Jul 2024.