| United Kingdom Leader of the House of Lords |
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| Office of the Leader of the House | |
| Appointer | David Cameron |
| Inaugural holder | Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend |
| Formation | 1721 |
| Deputy | Frederick Curzon, 7th Earl Howe[citation needed] |
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| This article is part of a series on the politics and government of the United Kingdom |
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The Leader of the House of Lords is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Lords. The role is always held in combination with a formal Cabinet position, usually one of the sinecure offices of Lord President of the Council, Lord Privy Seal or Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Unless the Leader is also a departmental minister, being Leader constitutes the bulk of his government responsibilities, but it has never been an independent salaried office. The Office of the Leader of the House of Lords is a ministerial department.[1]
Though the Leader of the House is a member of the cabinet and remains a partisan figure, he also has responsibilities to the House as a whole. In contrast to the House of Commons, where proceedings are controlled by the Speaker, proceedings in the Lords are controlled by peers themselves, under the rules set out in the Standing Orders. The Leader of the House has the responsibility of reminding the House of these rules and facilitating the Lords' self-regulation, though any member may draw attention to breaches of order or failure to observe customs. The Leader is often called upon to advise on procedures and points of order, and is required to determine the order of speakers on Supplementary Questions, subject to the wishes of the House. However, like the Lord Speaker, he has no power to rule on points of order or to intervene during an inappropriate speech.
Until the election of the first Lord Speaker on 4 July 2006, the Leader of the House had responsibility for making preliminary decisions on requests for Private Notice Questions, and for waiving the sub judice rule in certain cases. Those functions were transferred to the Lord Speaker.
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History[edit]
The title seems to have come into use some time after 1800, as a formal way of referring to the peer who managed government business in the upper House, irrespective of which salaried position they held in the cabinet. However, it may have been used as early as 1689, applied to George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, when he was Speaker of the House of Lords during the Convention Parliament of that year.
The role developed during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, at the same time as the role of Prime Minister and the system of Cabinet government. In the wake of the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution and the succession of the Hanoverians to the throne, Britain evolved a system of government where ministers were sustained in office by their ability to carry legislation through Parliament. It was therefore necessary for a member of the government to take responsibility for steering government legislation through each House.
Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, initiated aspects of the role during the Whig Junta under Queen Anne. Sunderland and the other Whigs were dismissed from office in reaction to their co-ordination of government matters, which was taken as a threat to the power of the monarch. Sunderland returned to power under George I, as Lord Privy Seal. The first documentary evidence of the existence of the role comes from 1717, when Sunderland became Secretary of State for the Northern Department: in the form of lists of peers invited to the office of the Northern Secretary immediately before sessions of Parliament.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Prime Minister himself usually took responsibility for steering business through the House in which he sat. When the Prime Minister sat in the Commons, the position of Leader of the Lords was often held by the Foreign Secretary or Colonial Secretary. In some coalition governments, it was held by the party leader who was not Prime Minister.
Since the end of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury's last government, in 1902, the position clearly exists in its own right as a member of the cabinet. Since 1966 it has only been combined with sinecure positions and the holder has not been a departmental minister though some have held additional responsibilities such as Quintin Hogg, 2nd Viscount Hailsham also being designated "Minister for Science" or Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington also being "Minister for Women".
The first female Leader of the Lords was Janet Young, Baroness Young in 1981–1983.
Leaders of the House of Lords[edit]
Because the post is a parliamentary one and not a ministerial office in its own right, it is not always included in official lists of government offices, especially for earlier periods. This can make it difficult to determine who the Leader of the House of Lords was in a particular ministry.
18th century[edit]
| Name | Portrait | Concurrent office(s) | Tenure | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend |  |
Northern Secretary | 1721 – 1730 | Whig | Robert Walpole | ||
| ? | 1730 – February 1742 | ||||||
| John Carteret, 2nd Baron Carteret (2nd Earl Granville from October 1744) |  |
Northern Secretary | 12 February 1742 – 24 November 1744 | Whig | Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington (until July 1743) | ||
| Henry Pelham (from 27 August 1743) | |||||||
| Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle |  |
1744 – 16 November 1756 | |||||
| Prime Minister (from 16 March 1754) | Himself | ||||||
| William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire |  |
Prime Minister | 16 November 1756 – 25 June 1757 | Himself | |||
| Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle | |
2 July 1757 – 26 May 1762 | Himself | ||||
| John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute |  |
26 May 1762 – 8 April 1763 | Tory | Himself | |||
| ? | 1763 – 1765 | George Grenville | |||||
| Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham |  |
Prime Minister | 13 July 1765 – 30 July 1766 | Rockingham Whig | Himself | ||
| Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton |  |
1766 – 28 January 1770 | Chathamite Whig | William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham (until October 1768) | |||
| Prime Minister | Himself (from 14 October 1768) | ||||||
| ? | 1770 – 1782 | Frederick North | |||||
| Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham | |
Prime Minister | 27 March – July 1782 | Rockingham Whig | Himself | ||
| William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne |  |
14 July 1782 – April 1783 | Himself | ||||
| William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland |  |
2 April – December 1783 | Whig (Fox-North Coalition) |
Himself (figurehead) |
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| Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney |  |
Home Secretary | December 1783 – June 1789 | Whig | William Pitt the Younger | ||
| Francis Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds |  |
Foreign Secretary | 1789 – 1790 | Tory | |||
| William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville |  |
Home Secretary (until June 1791) Foreign Secretary (from June 1791) |
November 1790 – February 1801 | ||||
19th century[edit]
| Name | Portrait | Concurrent office(s) | Tenure | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ? (Thomas Pelham, Lord Pelham?) | February – March 1801 | Tory | William Pitt the Younger | ||||
| Robert Hobart, Lord Hobart[2] |  |
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies | March – ? 1801 | Henry Addington | |||
| Thomas Pelham, Lord Pelham |  |
Home Secretary | 1801 – 1803 | ||||
| Robert Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury |  |
Foreign Secretary (until May 1804) | 1803 – February 1806 | ||||
| Home Secretary (from 12 May 1804) | William Pitt the Younger | ||||||
| William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville | |
Prime Minister | 11 February 1806 – March 1807 | Whig | Himself (Ministry of All the Talents) |
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| Robert Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury (2nd Earl of Liverpool from 1808) |
|
Home Secretary (until November 1809) | 25 March 1807 – April 1827 | Tory | William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland | ||
| War & Colonial Secretary (1 November 1809 – June 1812) | Spencer Perceval | ||||||
| Prime Minister (from 8 June 1812) | Himself | ||||||
| F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich |  |
War & Colonial Secretary (until September 1827) | 30 April 1827 – January 1828 | George Canning | |||
| Prime Minister (from 31 August 1827) | Himself | ||||||
| Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington |  |
Prime Minister | January 1828 – November 1830 | Himself | |||
| Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey |  |
22 November 1830 – 9 July 1834 | Whig | Himself | |||
| William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne |  |
16 July – 14 November 1834 | Himself | ||||
| Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington | |
Caretaker: Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, War & Colonial Secretary | 17 November 1834 – 8 April 1835 | Tory | Himself (Caretaker) |
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| Foreign Secretary | Robert Peel | ||||||
| William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne | |
Prime Minister | 18 April 1835 – 30 August 1841 | Whig | Himself | ||
| Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington | |
Minister without Portfolio | 3 September 1841 – 27 June 1846 | Conservative | Robert Peel | ||
| Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne |  |
Lord President of the Council | 6 July 1846 – 21 February 1852 | Whig | John Russell | ||
| Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby |  |
Prime Minister | 23 February – 17 December 1852 | Conservative | Himself | ||
| George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen |  |
19 December 1852 – 30 January 1855 | Peelite | Himself (Coalition) |
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| Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville |  |
Lord President of the Council | 8 February 1855 – 21 February 1858 | Whig | Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston | ||
| Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | |
Prime Minister | 21 February 1858 – 11 June 1859 | Conservative | Himself | ||
| Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville | |
Lord President of the Council | 18 June 1859 – 29 October 1865 | Liberal | Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston | ||
| John Russell, 1st Earl Russell |  |
Prime Minister | 29 October 1865 – 26 June 1866 | Himself | |||
| Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | |
28 June 1866 – 25 February 1868 | Conservative | Himself | |||
| James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury |  |
Lord Privy Seal | 27 February – 1 December 1868 | Benjamin Disraeli | |||
| Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville | |
Colonial Secretary (until July 1870) Foreign Secretary (from 6 July 1870) |
9 December 1868 – 17 February 1874 | Liberal | William Ewart Gladstone | ||
| Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond |  |
Lord President of the Council | 21 February 1874 – 21 August 1876 | Conservative | Benjamin Disraeli | ||
| Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield |  |
Prime Minister | 21 August 1876 – 21 April 1880 | Himself | |||
| Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville | |
Foreign Secretary | 28 April 1880 – 9 June 1885 | Liberal | William Ewart Gladstone | ||
| Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury |  |
Prime Minister Foreign Secretary |
23 June 1885 – 28 January 1886 | Conservative | Himself | ||
| Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville | |
Colonial Secretary | 6 February – 20 July 1886 | Liberal | William Ewart Gladstone | ||
| Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury | |
Prime Minister Foreign Secretary (from 14 January 1887) |
25 July 1886 – 11 August 1892 | Conservative | Himself | ||
| John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley |  |
Lord President of the Council | 18 August 1892 – 5 March 1894 | Liberal | William Ewart Gladstone | ||
| Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery |  |
Prime Minister | 5 March 1894 – 21 June 1895 | Himself | |||
| Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury | |
Prime Minister Foreign Secretary (until November 1900) Lord Privy Seal (from 12 November 1900) |
25 June 1895 – 11 July 1902 | Conservative | Himself | ||
Edwardian and wartime[edit]
| Name | Portrait | Concurrent office(s) | Tenure | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire |  |
Lord President of the Council | 12 July 1902 – 13 October 1903 | Liberal Unionist | Arthur Balfour (Conservative) |
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| Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne |  |
Foreign Secretary | 13 October 1903 – 4 December 1905 | ||||
| George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon |  |
Lord Privy Seal | 10 December 1905 – 14 April 1908 | Liberal | Henry Campbell-Bannerman | ||
| Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Earl of Crewe (1st Marquess of Crewe from July 1911) |
 |
Colonial Secretary (May 1908 – November 1910) Lord Privy Seal (October 1908 – October 1911; February 1912 – May 1915) India Secretary (November 1910 – March 1911; 25 May 1911 – May 1915) Lord President of the Council (from 25 May 1915) President of the Board of Education (from 18 August 1916) |
14 April 1908 – 10 December 1916 | H. H. Asquith | |||
| George Curzon, 1st Earl Curzon of Kedleston (1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston from July 1921) |
 |
Lord President of the Council (until October 1919) Foreign Secretary (from 23 October 1919) |
10 December 1916 – 22 January 1924 | Conservative | David Lloyd George | ||
| Bonar Law | |||||||
| Stanley Baldwin | |||||||
| Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane |  |
Lord Chancellor | 22 January – 3 November 1924 | Labour | Ramsay MacDonald | ||
| George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston | |
Lord President of the Council | 3 November 1924 – 20 March 1925 | Conservative | Stanley Baldwin | ||
| James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury |  |
Lord Privy Seal | 27 April 1925 – 4 June 1929 | ||||
| Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor |  |
Lord President of the Council | 7 June 1929 – 24 August 1931 | Labour | Ramsay MacDonald | ||
| Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading |  |
Foreign Secretary | 24 August – 5 November 1931 | Liberal | Ramsay MacDonald (Nat. Govts: I & II) |
||
| Douglas Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham |  |
Secretary of State for War | 5 November 1931 – 7 June 1935 | Conservative | |||
| Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry |  |
Lord Privy Seal | 7 June – 22 November 1935 | Stanley Baldwin (Nat. Govt) |
|||
| Edward Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax |  |
Lord Privy Seal (until May 1937) Lord President of the Council (from 28 May 1937) |
22 November 1935 – 21 February 1938 | ||||
| Neville Chamberlain (Nat. Govt) |
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| James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope |  |
President of the Board of Education (until October 1938) First Lord of the Admiralty (27 October 1938 – September 1939) |
21 February 1938 – 14 May 1940 | ||||
| Lord President of the Council (from 3 September 1939) | Neville Chamberlain (War coalition) |
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| Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote |  |
Dominions Secretary | 14 May – 3 October 1940 | Winston Churchill (War coalition) |
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| Edward Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax | |
Foreign Secretary | 3 October – 22 December 1940 | ||||
| George Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd |  |
Colonial Secretary | 22 December 1940 – 4 February 1941 | ||||
| Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne |  |
8 February 1941 – 21 February 1942 | |||||
| Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne |  |
Colonial Secretary (until November 1942) Lord Privy Seal (22 November 1942 – September 1943) Dominions Secretary (from 24 September 1943–45) |
21 February 1942 – 26 July 1945 | ||||
| Winston Churchill (Caretaker coalition) |
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Post-War[edit]
| Name | Portrait | Concurrent office(s) | Tenure | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison |  |
Dominions Secretary (until July 1947) Commonwealth Secretary (7 July – October 1947) Lord Privy Seal (7 October 1947 – March 1951) Paymaster General (2 July 1948 – April 1949) Lord President of the Council (from 9 March 1951) |
3 August 1945 – 26 October 1951 | Labour | Clement Attlee | ||
| Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury |  |
Lord Privy Seal (until May 1952) Commonwealth Secretary (12 March – November 1952) Lord President of the Council (from 24 November 1952) |
28 October 1951 – 29 March 1957 | Conservative | Winston Churchill | ||
| Anthony Eden | |||||||
| Alec Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home |  |
Commonwealth Secretary Lord President of the Council (until September 1957 & from 14 October 1959) |
29 March 1957 – 27 July 1960 | Harold Macmillan | |||
| Quintin Hogg, 2nd Viscount Hailsham |  |
Lord President of the Council Minister for Science |
27 July 1960 – 20 October 1963 | ||||
| Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington |  |
Minister without Portfolio | 20 October 1963 – 16 October 1964 | Alec Douglas-Home | |||
| Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford |  |
Lord Privy Seal (until December 1965 & from 6 April 1966) Colonial Secretary (23 December 1965 – April 1966) |
18 October 1964 – 16 January 1968 | Labour | Harold Wilson | ||
| Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton |  |
Lord Privy Seal (until April 1968 & from 18 October 1968) Paymaster-General (6 April–November 1968) |
16 January 1968 – 19 June 1970 | ||||
| George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe |  |
Lord Privy Seal | 20 June 1970 – 23 May 1973 | Conservative | Edward Heath | ||
| David Hennessy, 3rd Baron Windlesham | 5 June 1973 – 4 March 1974 | ||||||
| Malcolm Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd |  |
7 March 1974 – 10 September 1976 | Labour | Harold Wilson | |||
| James Callaghan | |||||||
| Fred Peart, Baron Peart | 10 September 1976 – 4 May 1979 | ||||||
| Christopher Soames, Baron Soames | Lord President of the Council | 5 May 1979 – 14 September 1981 | Conservative | Margaret Thatcher | |||
| Janet Young, Baroness Young | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (until April 1982) Lord Privy Seal (from 6 April 1982) |
14 September 1981 – 11 June 1983 | |||||
| Willie Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw |  |
Deputy Prime Minister Lord President of the Council |
11 June 1983 – 10 January 1988 | ||||
| John Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead | Lord Privy Seal | 10 January 1988 – 28 November 1990 | |||||
| David Waddington, Baron Waddington | 28 November 1990 – 11 April 1992 | John Major | |||||
| John Wakeham, Baron Wakeham | 11 April 1992 – 20 July 1994 | ||||||
| Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne |  |
20 July 1994 – 2 May 1997 | |||||
| Ivor Richard, Baron Richard | 2 May 1997 – 27 July 1998 | Labour | Tony Blair | ||||
| Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington |  |
27 July 1998 – 8 June 2001 | |||||
21st century[edit]
| Name | Portrait | Concurrent office(s) | Tenure | Political party | Prime Minister | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn | Lord Privy Seal | 8 June 2001 – 20 September 2003 | Labour | Tony Blair | |||
| Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos |  |
Lord President of the Council | 6 October 2003 – 27 June 2007 | ||||
| Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland |  |
27 June 2007 – 2 October 2008 | Gordon Brown | ||||
| Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon |  |
Lord President of the Council (until June 2009) Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (from 5 June 2009) |
2 October 2008 – 11 May 2010 | ||||
| Tom Galbraith, 2nd Baron Strathclyde |  |
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | 12 May 2010 – 7 January 2013 | Conservative | David Cameron (Coalition) |
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| Jonathan Hill, Baron Hill of Oareford |  |
7 January 2013 – 15 July 2014 | |||||
| Tina Stowell, Baroness Stowell of Beeston |  |
Lord Privy Seal | 15 July 2014 – present | ||||
| David Cameron | |||||||
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/212617/lmr2009.pdf[dead link]
- ^ M. W. McCahill, The House of Lords in the Age of George III (1760-1811) (2009) p. 242.