Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)

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. 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.

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

thumb|[[Charles James Fox, Leader of the Opposition 1783–1806]]

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. 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 who was not Benjamin Disraeli. 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.

The Liberal Party was formally founded in 1859, replacing the Whig Party as one of the two leading parties. With increasing party discipline it became easier to define the principal opposition party and the leaders of the opposition.

The last overall leader of the opposition to have led it from the House of Lords was the Earl of Rosebery. He resigned as such in November 1896. Lord Rosebery had been Liberal prime minister from 1894 to 1895.

thumb|right|"The opposition": [[Bonar Law as caricatured in Vanity Fair, April 1912]]

The Parliament Act 1911 removed the legislative veto from the House of Lords to permit the welfare-state forming Liberal legislation, the People's Budget, and any future money bills to be enacted by the Commons without any input from the Lords. This, therefore, entrenched the de facto position that there could only be one true leader of the opposition and in effect clarified in which house that leader would need to sit. From this point, all leaders of the opposition in the House of Commons would thus be overall leaders of the opposition.

In 1915 the Liberal, Conservative and Labour parties formed a wartime coalition. The Irish Parliamentary Party did not join the government but were by and large not in opposition to it (seeking change through constitutional means, they were not responsible for the 1916 Easter Rising). As almost nobody in the Parliament could be said to be in opposition to the coalition, the leadership of the opposition in both Houses fell vacant.

Sir Edward Carson, the leading figure among the Irish Unionist Alliance (who were previously allied with the Conservatives, though not a part of the Conservative and Unionist Party which did not exist until the Tories merged with the Scottish Unionist Party in 1965), resigned from the coalition ministry on 19 October 1915. He then became the leader of those Irish Unionists who were not members of the government, effectively the leader of the opposition in the Commons.

The party situation changed in December 1916: a leading Liberal, David Lloyd George, formed a coalition with the support of a section of "Coalition Liberal", Conservative and Labour parties. The Leader of the Liberal Party, H. H. Asquith, and most of his leading colleagues left the government and took up seats on the opposition side of the House of Commons. Asquith was recognized as the leader of the opposition. He retained that post until he was defeated in the 1918 United Kingdom general election. Although Asquith continued to be the leader of the Liberal Party, as he was not a member of the House of Commons he was not eligible to be the leader of the opposition until returned in the 1920 Paisley by-election.

The Parliament elected in December 1918 which sat from 1919 until 1922 represents the most significant deviation from the principle that the leader of the opposition is the leader of the party not in government with the greatest numerical support in the House of Commons. The largest opposition party (disregarding Sinn Féin, whose abstentionist MPs did not take their seats at Westminster) was the Labour Party, which had wholly left the Lloyd George coalition and won 57 seats at the general election. Thirty-six Liberals had been elected without coalition support; however, they were mixed in their opposition to Lloyd George. The Labour Party did not have a leader until 1922. The Parliamentary Labour Party annually elected a chairman, but the party, due to its congressional origins, refused to assert a claim that the chairman was the leader of the opposition. Although the issue of who was entitled to be the leader of the opposition was never formally resolved, in practice the Opposition Liberal leader performed most of the parliamentary functions associated with the office.

The small group of opposition Liberals met in 1919, distanced by his coalition's protectionism and nationalization. They resolved that they were the Liberal Parliamentary Party. They elected Sir Donald Maclean as Chairman of the Parliamentary Party. Liberal Party practice at the time, when the overall leader of the party had lost an election to the House of Commons, was for the chairman to function as acting leader in the House. Maclean, therefore, took on the role of leader of the opposition, followed by Asquith, who returned to the House by winning a by-election (1920–1922).

From 1922 the Labour Party had a recognized leader so took over all remaining commons opposition roles from the Opposition Liberal Party. Since 1922 the principal Government and Opposition parties have been the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. There were three instances of peers being seriously considered for the prime ministership during the twentieth century (Lord Curzon of Kedleston in 1923, Lord Halifax in 1940, and Alec Douglas-Home in 1963), but these were all cases where the Conservative Party was in government and do not affect the list of leaders of the opposition.

In 1931–32 the Leader of the Labour Party was Arthur Henderson. He was the leader of the opposition for a short period in 1931, but was ineligible to continue when he lost his seat in the 1931 general election. George Lansbury was the leader of the opposition before he also became the leader of the Labour Party in 1932.

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".
Section 2(2) is in exactly the same terms as section 10(3) of the 1937 Act.
Section 2(3) is a corresponding provision for the Lord Chancellor (since 2005, the Lord Speaker) to decide about the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords.

The legislative provisions confirm that the leader of the opposition is, strictly, a Parliamentary office; so that to be a leader a person must be a member of the House of Commons or House of Lords.

Since 1937 the leader of the opposition has received a state salary in addition to their salary as a Member of Parliament (MP), now equivalent to a Cabinet minister. The holder also receives a chauffeur-driven car for official business of equivalent cost and specification to the vehicles used by most Cabinet ministers.

In 1940 the three largest parties in the House of Commons formed a coalition government to continue to prosecute the Second World War. This coalition continued in office until shortly after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. As the former leader of the opposition had joined the government the issue arose of who was to hold the office or perform its functions. Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1937–1940 (at paragraph 4069D) reported the situation, based on Hansard:

The Daily Herald reported that the Parliamentary Labour Party met on 22 May 1940 and unanimously elected Dr H. B. Lees-Smith as Chairman of the PLP (an office normally held by the party leader at that time) and as spokesman of the Party from the opposition front bench.

After the death of Lees-Smith, on 18 December 1941, the PLP, with Patrick McFadden acting as chairman, held a meeting on 21 January 1942. Frederick Pethick-Lawrence was unanimously elected Chairman of the PLP and the official spokesman of the party in the House of Commons while the party leader was serving in the government. After the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (Arthur Greenwood) left the government on 22 February 1942 he took over these roles from Pethick-Lawrence until the end of the coalition and the resumption of normal party politics.

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.

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" |Principal party of opposition

! colspan="2" |Leader of the Opposition House of Commons

! colspan="2" |Leader of the Opposition House of Lords

!Date

| style="background-color: " rowspan="8" |

| rowspan="8" | Whig

| 60px

| Viscount Howick

| rowspan="4" | 60px

| rowspan="4" | The Lord Grenville

| May 1807

| Vacant

| 14 November 1807

| 60px

| George Ponsonby

| 1808

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | Vacant

| 8 July 1817

| rowspan="3" | 60px

| rowspan="3" | The Earl Grey (formerly Viscount Howick)

| 1817

| 60px

| George Tierney

| 1818

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | Vacant

| 23 January 1821

| 60px

| The Marquess of Lansdowne

| 1824

| style="background-color: " |

| Tory

| 60px

| Sir Robert Peel

| 60px

| The Duke of Wellington

| April 1827

| style="background-color: " rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | Whig

| Vacant

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | The Marquess of Lansdowne

| January 1828

| 60px

| Viscount Althorp

| February 1830

| style="background-color: " |

| Tory

| 60px

| Sir Robert Peel

| 60px

| The Duke of Wellington

| November 1830

| style="background-color: " |

| Whig

| 60px

| Lord John Russell

| 60px

| The Viscount Melbourne

| November 1834

| style="background-color: " |

| Conservative

| 60px

| Sir Robert Peel

| 60px

| The Duke of Wellington

| April 1835

| style="background-color: " rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | Whig

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | Lord John Russell

| 60px

| The Viscount Melbourne

| August 1841

| 60px

| The Marquess of Lansdowne

| October 1842

| style="background-color: " rowspan="5" |

| rowspan="5" | Protectionist Conservative

| 60px

| Lord George Bentinck

| rowspan="5" | 60px

| rowspan="5" | The Lord Stanley of Bickerstaffe (The Earl of Derby from 1851)

| June 1846

| 60px

| Marquess of Granby

| 10 February 1848

| Vacant

| 4 March 1848

| rowspan="2" |60px

| Marquess of Granby; John Charles Herries; and Benjamin Disraeli

| February 1849

| Benjamin Disraeli

| 1851

| style="background-color: " |

| Whig

| 60px

| Lord John Russell

| 60px

| The Marquess of Lansdowne

| February 1852

| style="background-color: " |

| Conservative

| 60px

| Benjamin Disraeli

| 60px

| The Earl of Derby

| December 1852

| style="background-color: " |

| Whig

| 60px

| The Viscount Palmerston

| 60px

| The Earl Granville

| February 1858

| style="background-color: " |

| Conservative

| 60px

| Benjamin Disraeli

| 60px

| The Earl of Derby

| June 1859

| style="background-color: " rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | Liberal

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | William Ewart Gladstone

| 60px

| The Earl Russell (formerly Lord John Russell)

| June 1866

| 60px

| The Earl Granville

| December 1868

| style="background-color: " rowspan="3" |

| rowspan="3" | Conservative

| rowspan="3" | 60px

| rowspan="3" | Benjamin Disraeli

| 60px

| The Earl of Malmesbury

| December 1868

| 60px

| The Lord Cairns

| February 1869

| 60px

| The Duke of Richmond

| February 1870

| style="background-color: " rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | Liberal

| 60px

| William Ewart Gladstone

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | The Earl Granville

| February 1874

| 60px

| Marquess of Hartington

| February 1875

| style="background-color: " rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | Conservative

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | Sir Stafford Northcote

| 60px

| The Earl of Beaconsfield (formerly Benjamin Disraeli)

| April 1880

| 60px

| The Marquess of Salisbury

| May 1881

| style="background-color: " |

| Liberal

| 60px

| William Ewart Gladstone

| 60px

| The Earl Granville

| June 1885

| style="background-color: " |

| Conservative

| 60px

| Sir Michael Hicks Beach

| 60px

| The Marquess of Salisbury

| February 1886

| style="background-color: " rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | Liberal

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | William Ewart Gladstone

| 60px

| The Earl Granville

| July 1886

| 60px

| The Earl of Kimberley

| April 1891

| style="background-color: " |

| Conservative

| 60px

| Arthur Balfour

| 60px

| The Marquess of Salisbury

| August 1892

| style="background-color: " rowspan="5" |

| rowspan="5" | Liberal

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | Sir William Harcourt

| 60px

| The Earl of Rosebery

| June 1895

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | The Earl of Kimberley

| January 1897

| rowspan="3" | 60px

| rowspan="3" | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman

| 6 February 1899

| 60px

| The Earl Spencer

| 1902

| 60px

| The Marquess of Ripon

| 1905

| style="background-color: " rowspan="4" |

| rowspan="4" | Conservative

| 60px

| Arthur Balfour

| rowspan="4" | 60px

| rowspan="4" | The Marquess of Lansdowne (Liberal Unionist Party until 1912)

| 5 December 1905

| 60px

| Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal Unionist Party)

| 8 February 1906

| 60px

| Arthur Balfour

| 27 February 1906

| 60px

| Bonar Law

| 13 November 1911

List of leaders of the opposition (1911–present)

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible sticky-header-multi" style="line-height:1.4em; text-align:center;"

|+ List of leaders of the opposition since the Parliament Act

! rowspan=2 colspan="2" class=unsortable | Portrait

! rowspan=2 class=unsortable | Leader of the Opposition

! colspan=3 scope="colgroup" | Term of office

! rowspan=2 | Elections

! rowspan=2 | Party

! rowspan=2 | Shadow cabinet

! Start

! End

! Duration

| style="background-color: "|

| 60px

| Bonar Law

| 13 November 1911

| 25 May 1915

| rowspan="2" | —

| | Conservative

| rowspan="18" |

| style="background-color: " |

| 60px

| Sir Edward Carson

| 19 October 1915

| 6 December 1916

| | Irish Unionist

| style="background-color: " rowspan="3" |

| 60px

| H. H. Asquith

| 6 December 1916

| 14 December 1918

| | 1918

| rowspan="3"| Liberal

| 60px

| Sir Donald Maclean

| 9 January 1919

| 25 February 1920

| | —

| 60px

| H. H. Asquith

| 25 February 1920

| 21 November 1922

| | 1922

| style="background-color: " |

| 60px

| Ramsay MacDonald

| 21 November 1922

| 22 January 1924

| | 1923

| | Labour

| style="background-color: " |

| 60px

| Stanley Baldwin

| 22 January 1924

| 4 November 1924

| | 1924

| | Conservative

| style="background-color: " |

| 60px

| Ramsay MacDonald

| 4 November 1924

| 5 June 1929

| | 1929

| | Labour

| style="background-color: " |

| 60px

| Stanley Baldwin

| 5 June 1929

| 24 August 1931

| | —

| | Conservative

| style="background-color: " rowspan="7" |

| 60px

| Arthur Henderson

| 1 September 1931

| 27 October 1931

| | 1931

| rowspan="7"| Labour

| 80x80px

| George Lansbury

| 5 November 1931

| 8 October 1935

| | —

| 60px

| Clement Attlee

| 8 October 1935

| 11 May 1940

| | 1935

| 60px

| Hastings Lees-Smith

| 22 May 1940

| 18 December 1941

| rowspan="3"| —

| 60px

| Frederick Pethick-Lawrence

| 21 January 1942

| 22 February 1942

| 60px

| Arthur Greenwood

| 22 February 1942

| 23 May 1945

| 60px

| Clement Attlee

| 23 May 1945

| 26 July 1945

| | 1945

| style="background-color: " rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | Winston Churchill

| rowspan="2" | 26 July 1945

| rowspan="2" | 26 October 1951

| rowspan="2" |

| | 1950

| rowspan="2" | Conservative

| | 1951

| style="background-color: " rowspan="5" |

| 60px

| Clement Attlee

| 26 October 1951

| 25 November 1955

| | 1955

| rowspan="5"| Labour

| rowspan="2"| Attlee II

| 60px

| Herbert Morrison

| 25 November 1955

| 14 December 1955

| | —

| 60px

| Hugh Gaitskell

| 14 December 1955

| 18 January 1963

| | 1959

| | Gaitskell

| 60px

| George Brown

| 18 January 1963

| 14 February 1963

| | —

| | Brown

| 60px

| Harold Wilson

| 14 February 1963

| 16 October 1964

| | 1964

| | Wilson I

| style="background-color: " rowspan="3" |

| 60px

| Alec Douglas-Home

| 16 October 1964

| 28 July 1965

| | —

| | Conservative

| | Douglas-Home

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | Edward Heath

| rowspan="2" | 28 July 1965

| rowspan="2" | 19 June 1970

| rowspan="2" |

| | 1966

| rowspan="2" | Conservative

| rowspan="2" | Heath I

| | 1970

| style="background-color: " |

| 60px

| Harold Wilson

| 19 June 1970

| 4 March 1974

| | Feb 1974

| | Labour

| | Wilson II

| style="background-color: " rowspan="2" |

| 60px

| Edward Heath

| 4 March 1974

| 11 February 1975

| | Oct 1974

| rowspan="2"| Conservative

| | Heath II

| 60px

| Margaret Thatcher

| 11 February 1975

| 4 May 1979

| | 1979

| | Thatcher

| style="background-color: " rowspan="7" |

| 60px

| James Callaghan

| 4 May 1979

| 10 November 1980

| | —

| rowspan="7"| Labour

| | Callaghan

| 60px

| Michael Foot

| 10 November 1980

| 2 October 1983

| | 1983

| | Foot

| rowspan="2" | 82x82px

| rowspan="2" | Neil Kinnock

| rowspan="2" | 2 October 1983

| rowspan="2" | 18 July 1992

| rowspan="2" |

| | 1987

| rowspan="2" | Kinnock

| | 1992

| 60px

| John Smith

| 18 July 1992

| 12 May 1994

| | —

| | Smith

| 60px

| Margaret Beckett

| 12 May 1994

| 21 July 1994

| | —

| | Beckett

| 60px

| Tony Blair

| 21 July 1994

| 2 May 1997

| | 1997

| | Blair

| style="background-color: " rowspan="5" |

| 60px

| John Major

| 2 May 1997

| 19 June 1997

| | —

| rowspan="5" | Conservative

| | Major

| 60px

| William Hague

| 19 June 1997

| 13 September 2001

| | 2001

| | Hague

| 60px

| Iain Duncan Smith

| 13 September 2001

| 6 November 2003

| | —

| | Duncan Smith

| 78x78px

| Michael Howard

| 6 November 2003

| 6 December 2005

| | 2005

| | Howard

| 60px

| David Cameron

| 6 December 2005

| 11 May 2010

| | 2010

| | Cameron

| style="background-color: " rowspan="6" |

| 60px

| Harriet Harman

| 11 May 2010

| 25 September 2010

| | —

| rowspan="6" | Labour

| | Harman I

| 60px

| Ed Miliband

| 25 September 2010

| 8 May 2015

| | 2015

| | Miliband

| 60px

| Harriet Harman

| 8 May 2015

| 12 September 2015

| | —

| | Harman II

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | Jeremy Corbyn

| rowspan="2" | 12 September 2015

| rowspan="2" | 4 April 2020

| rowspan="2" |

| | 2017

| rowspan="2" | Corbyn

| | 2019

| 60px

| Keir Starmer

| 4 April 2020

| 5 July 2024

| | 2024

| | Starmer

| style="background-color: " rowspan="2" |

| 60px

| Rishi Sunak

| 5 July 2024

| 2 November 2024

| | —

| rowspan="2"| Conservative

| | Sunak

| 60px

| Kemi Badenoch

| 2 November 2024

| Incumbent

| | —

| | Badenoch

Timeline

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.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 95%;"

! Rank

! Leader of Opposition

! Length served

! General elections won

! General elections lost

! Terms as Prime Minister

! scope="col" colspan="2" | Party

! Term(s)

! class="unsortable" |Refs

| 1

| Clement Attlee

| 2

| Neil Kinnock

| 0

| –1992

| 7

| Harold Wilson

| 1970

| 2

| 9

| Ed Miliband

| 0

| 2015

| 0

| –2015

| 11

| David Cameron

| 0

| 1

| –2010

| 12

| Keir Starmer

| 2024

| 0

| 1

| –2024

| 13

| William Hague

| 0

| 2001

| 0

| –2001

| 19

| Michael Foot

| 0

| 1983

| 0

| –1983

| 25

| Hastings Lees-Smith

| —

| 0

| –1941

| 26

| James Callaghan

| 0

| 1979

| 1

| –1980

| 28

| Donald Maclean

| —

| 0

| –1920

| 29

| Alec Douglas-Home

| 0

| 1964

| 1

| –1965

| 30

| Harriet Harman

| —

| 0

| 32

| Margaret Beckett

| —

| 0

| 36

|George Brown

| —

| 0