Deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats explained

Post:	Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party
Incumbent:	Daisy Cooper
Incumbentsince:	13 September 2020
Leader:	Ed Davey
Formation:	3 March 1988
Reports To:	Leader of Liberal Democrats
Inaugural:	Russell Johnston
Appointer:	Liberal Democrats
Termlength:	Four years

The office of deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats (officially deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party) is a position within the Liberal Democrats, a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. The position of Deputy Leader has never formally existed in the party constitution, however since the party's foundation, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary group in the House of Commons have usually elected a Deputy Leader. Although often referred to as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, this post is actually only Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat parliamentary group in the House of Commons and not Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems as a whole.

Daisy Cooper was elected by her fellow MPs to the post of Deputy Leader following Ed Davey's election to the post of leader in September 2020.

List of Deputy Leaders of the Liberal Democrats

	Name	Portrait	Constituency	Term began	Term ended	Concurrent Office(s)	Leader(s)
1	Sir Russell Johnston		Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber	16 July 1988	13 April 1992	President of the Scottish Liberal Democrats		Ashdown
2	Sir Alan Beith		Berwick-upon-Tweed	13 April 1992	12 February 2003	Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Shadow Leader of the Commons	height=50 style="background-color: ; border-top:solid 0 gray"
								Kennedy
3	Sir Menzies Campbell		North East Fife	12 February 2003	2 March 2006	Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs	height=50 style="background-color: ; border-top:solid 0 gray"
								Campbell^1
4	Sir Vince Cable		Twickenham	2 March 2006	26 May 2010	Spokesperson for the Treasury Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills President of the Board of Trade	height=50 style="background-color: ; border-top:solid 0 gray"
								Cable^2
								Clegg
5	Sir Simon Hughes		Bermondsey and Old Southwark	9 June 2010	28 January 2014	Minister of State for Justice and Civil Liberties
6	Sir Malcolm Bruce		Gordon	28 January 2014	8 May 2015	Chair of the International Development Committee
Office not in use 8 May 2015 – 20 June 2017							height=20 style="background-color: ; border-top:solid 0 gray"
								Farron
7	Jo Swinson		East Dunbartonshire	20 June 2017	22 July 2019	Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs	height=20 style="background-color: ; border-top:solid 0 gray"
								Cable
8	Sir Ed Davey		Kingston and Surbiton	3 September 2019	27 August 2020	Spokesperson for the Treasury Spokesperson for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy		Swinson
								Himself and Pack (acting)^3
9	Daisy Cooper		St Albans	13 September 2020	Incumbent	Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education		Davey

Notes:

• ¹ Campbell served as acting leader between the resignation of Charles Kennedy on 7 January 2006 and his own election as leader on 2 March 2006.
• ² Cable served as acting leader between the resignation of Menzies Campbell on 15 October 2007 and the election of Nick Clegg on 18 December 2007.
• ³ After leader Jo Swinson lost her seat in the 2019 General Election, Ed Davey in his role as Deputy Leader and Mark Pack as Party President became acting co-leaders until a leadership election could be held in 2020.

See also

• Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)
• Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)

References

• Federal Constitution of the Liberal Democrats

External links

• Liberal Democrat History Group