The Leader of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition, more commonly referred to as the Leader of the Opposition, is the person who leads the Official Opposition in the United Kingdom. The position is seen as the shadow head of government of the United Kingdom and thus the shadow prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Originally by convention, the Leader of the Opposition is the leader of the largest political party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom that is not in government. When a single party wins outright, this is the party leader of the second-largest political party in the House of Commons. The role has since been codified by statute.
The Leader of the Opposition is often viewed as an alternative or shadow prime minister, and is appointed to the Privy Council (if not already appointed as a member). They lead an Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet, which scrutinises the actions of the Cabinet and offers alternative policies to those of the party in government.
In the nineteenth century, party affiliations were generally less fixed and the leaders in the two Houses were often of equal status. A single and clear Leader of the Opposition was only definitively settled if the opposition leader in the House of Commons or House of Lords was the outgoing prime minister. However, since the Parliament Act 1911, there has been no dispute that the leader in the House of Commons is pre-eminent and has always held the primary title. The Leader of the Opposition is entitled to a salary in addition to their salary as a Member of Parliament. In 2019, this additional entitlement was available up to £65,181.
The role is considered by those who have held it as the worst and most difficult job in politics, with Prime Minister Tony Blair and then-Leader of the Opposition William Hague agreeing that the opposition role was the harder job of the two positions.
The Incumbent Leader of the Opposition is Kemi Badenoch, appointed on 2 November 2024 as the Leader of the Conservative Party, succeeding to the Leader of the Opposition position following the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election.
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Leaders of the opposition from 1807
The first modern Leader of the Opposition was Charles James Fox, who led the Whigs as such for a generation, except during the Fox–North Coalition in 1783. He finally rejoined the government in the Ministry of All the Talents formed in 1806 and died later that year.
Early developments 1807–1830
For there to be a recognised Leader of the Opposition, it is necessary for there to be a sufficiently cohesive opposition to need a formal leader. The emergence of the office thus coincided with the period when wholly united parties (Whig and Tory, governments and oppositions) became the norm. This situation was normalized in the Parliament of 1807–1812 when the members of the Grenvillite and Foxite Whig factions resolved to maintain a joint, dual-house leadership for the whole party.
The Ministry of all the Talents, in which both Whig factions participated, fell at the 1807 general election, during which the Whigs had re-adopted traditional factions, forming an opposition. The prime minister of the Talents ministry, Lord Grenville, had led his eponymous faction from the House of Lords. Meanwhile, the government leader of the House of Commons, Viscount Howick (later known as Earl Grey and the political heir of Charles James Fox who had died in 1806), led his faction, the Foxite whigs, from the House of Commons.
Howick's father, the 1st Earl Grey, died on 14 November 1807. As such the new Earl Grey vacated his seat in the House of Commons and moved to the House of Lords. This left no obvious Whig leader in the House of Commons.
Grenville's article in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography confirms that he was considered the Whig leader in the House of Lords between 1807 and 1817, despite Grey leading the larger faction.
Political historian Archibald Foord describes Grenville and Grey as being "duumvirs of the party from 1807 to 1817" and consulted about what was to be done. Grenville was at first reluctant to name a leader of the opposition in the House of Commons, commenting "all the elections in the world would not have made Windham or Sheridan leaders of the old Opposition while Fox was alive".
Eventually, they jointly recommended George Ponsonby to the Whig MPs, whom they accepted as the first leader of the opposition in the House of Commons. Ponsonby, an Irish lawyer who was the uncle of Grey's wife, had been Lord Chancellor of Ireland during the Ministry of all the Talents and had only just been re-elected to the House of Commons in 1808 when he became leader. Ponsonby proved a weak leader but as he could not be persuaded to resign and the duumvirs did not want to depose him, he remained in place until he died in 1817.
Leaders of the opposition 1830–1937
In the period of 1830–1937, the normal expectation was that there would be two leading parties (often with smaller allied groups), of which one would form the government and the other the opposition. These parties were expected to have recognized leaders in the two Houses, so there was normally no problem in identifying who led the opposition in each House.
The constitutional convention developed in the nineteenth century was that if one of the leaders was the last prime minister of the party, then he would be considered the overall leader of his party. If that was not the case then the leaders of both Houses were of equal status. As the monarch retained some discretion as to which leader should be invited to form a ministry, it was not always obvious in advance which one would be called upon to do so. However, as the leadership of the opposition only existed by custom, the normal expectations and conventions were modified by political realities from time to time.
From 1830 until 1846 the Conservative Party (formerly known as the Tory Party) and the Whig Party (increasingly often described with its Radical and other allies as the Liberal Party) alternated in power and provided clear leaders of the opposition.
In 1846 the Conservative Party split into (Protectionist) Conservative and Peelite (or Liberal Conservative) factions. The Protectionists being the larger group, the recognized leaders of the opposition were drawn from their ranks. In the House of Lords, Lord Stanley (soon becoming Earl of Derby) was the Protectionist leader. He was the only established front-rank political figure in the faction and thus a very strong candidate to form the next Conservative ministry.
The leadership in the House of Commons was more problematic. Lord George Bentinck, the leader of the Protectionist revolt against Sir Robert Peel, initially led the party in the Commons. He resigned in December 1847. The party was then faced with the problem of how to produce a credible leader. The first attempt to square the circle was made in February 1848, when the young Marquess of Granby was installed as the leader. He gave up the post in March 1848. The leadership then fell vacant until February 1849.
The next experiment was to entrust the leadership to a triumvirate of Granby, Disraeli, and the elderly John Charles Herries. In practice, Disraeli ignored his co-triumvirs. In 1851 Granby resigned and the party accepted Disraeli as the sole leader. The Protectionists by then were clearly the core of the Conservative Party and Derby was able to form his first government in 1852.
Statutory leaders of the opposition from 1937
Leaders of the opposition in the two Houses of Parliament had been generally recognized and given a special status in Parliament for more than a century before they were mentioned in legislation.
Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice confirms that the office of the leader of the opposition was first given statutory recognition in the Ministers of the Crown Act 1937.
Section 5 stated that "There shall be paid to the Leader of the Opposition an annual salary of two thousand pounds".
Section 10(1) included a definition (which codifies the usual situation under the previous custom): "'Leader of the Opposition' means that member of the House of Commons who is for the time being the Leader in that House of the party in opposition to His Majesty's Government having the greatest numerical strength in that House".
The 1937 Act also contains an important provision to decide who is the Leader of the Opposition, if this is in doubt. Under section 10(3), "If any doubt arises as to which is or was at any material time the party in opposition to His Majesty's Government having the greatest numerical strength in the House of Commons, or as to who is or was at any material time the leader in that House of such a party, the question shall be decided for the purposes of this Act by the Speaker of the House of Commons, and his decision, certified in writing under his hand, shall be final and conclusive."
Subsequent legislation also gave statutory recognition to the leader of the opposition in the House of Lords.
Section 2(1) of the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975 provides that "In this Act 'Leader of the Opposition' means, in relation to either House of Parliament, that member of that House who is for the time being the Leader in that House of the party in opposition to His Majesty's Government having the greatest numerical strength in the House of Commons".
List of leaders of the opposition (1807–1911)
The table lists the people who were, or who acted as, leaders of the opposition in the two Houses of Parliament since 1807, prior to which the post was held by Charles James Fox for decades.
The leaders of the two Houses were of equal status, before 1911, unless one was the most recent Prime Minister for the party. Such a former prime minister was considered to be the overall leader of the opposition. From 1911 the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons was considered to be the overall Leader of the Opposition. Overall leaders names are bolded. Acting leaders names are in italics unless the acting leader subsequently became a full leader during a continuous period as leader.
Due to the fragmentation of both principal parties in 1827–1830, the leaders and principal opposition parties suggested for those years are provisional.
List of leaders of the opposition (1911–present)
List of leaders of the opposition by total length of tenure
This list notes each Leader of the Opposition, from the Parliament Act 1911 granting legislative preeminence to the House of Commons, and the Ministers of the Crown Act 1937 the leader of the second largest faction within it a statutory title and salary, rather than the customary role as HM Official Opposition, in order of term length. This is based on the difference between dates; if counted by number of calendar days all the figures would be one greater.
Of the 37 leaders of the opposition listed, seven served more than 5 years, seven have lost more than one general election, and eight have served less than a year.