Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats

The Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats is responsible for administering the whipping system in the party which ensures that members attend and vote in parliament when the party leadership requires a majority vote. Whips, of which two are appointed in the party, a member of the House of Commons and a member of the House of Lords, also help to organise their party’s contribution to parliamentary business. On some occasions, the party leadership may allow MP's to have a free vote based on their own conscience rather than party policy, of which the chief whip is not required to direct votes.

This is a list of people who have served as Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom and of its predecessor parties. The Liberal Party was formed in 1859, but through its roots in the Whig Party dates back to the late 1670s. In 1988, the Liberals merged with the Social Democratic Party, formed by dissident Labour Party members in 1981, to create the Liberal Democrats.

House of Commons

Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats
Incumbent Wendy Chamberlain MP since 31 August 2020
Appointer	Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Inaugural holder	Edward Ellice (Whigs) James Wallace (Liberal Democrats)
Formation	circa 1830 (as Chief Whip of the Whig Party) 1988 (in current form)

Whigs

Year	Name	Constituency
1830	Edward Ellice	Coventry
1830	Charles Wood	Great Grimsby
1834	Francis Thornhill Baring	Portsmouth
1835	Edward John Stanley	North Cheshire
1841	Richard More O'Ferrall	Kildare
1846	Henry Tufnell	Plymouth Devonport
1850	William Goodenough Hayter	Wells

Liberal Party

Year	Name	Constituency
1859	Henry Bouverie William Brand	Lewes
1866	George Grenfell Glyn	Shaftesbury
1873	Arthur Wellesley Peel	Warwick
1874	William Patrick Adam	Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire
1880	Lord Richard Grosvenor	Flintshire
1885	Arnold Morley	Nottingham East
1892	Edward Marjoribanks	Berwickshire
1894	T. E. Ellis	Merioneth
1900	Herbert Gladstone	Leeds West
1905	George Whiteley	Pudsey
1908	Joseph Pease	Saffron Walden
1910	The Master of Elibank	Midlothian
1912	Percy Illingworth	Shipley
1915	John Gulland	Dumfries Burghs
1923	Vivian Phillipps	Edinburgh West
1924	Sir Godfrey Collins	Greenock
1926	Sir Robert Hutchinson	Montrose Burghs
1930	Archibald Sinclair	Caithness and Sutherland
1931	Goronwy Owen	Caernarvonshire
1932	Walter Rea	Dewsbury
1935	Sir Percy Harris	Bethnal Green South West
1945	Tom Horabin	North Cornwall
1946	Frank Byers	North Dorset
1950	Jo Grimond	Orkney and Shetland
1956	Donald Wade	Huddersfield West
1962	Arthur Holt	Bolton West
1963	Eric Lubbock	Orpington
1970	David Steel	Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles
1976	Cyril Smith	Rochdale
1977	Alan Beith	Berwick-upon-Tweed
1985	David Alton	Liverpool Mossley Hill
1987	Jim Wallace^1	Orkney and Shetland

• ^1 Wallace continued as Liberal Democrat Chief Whip following the merger

Social Democratic Party

Year	Name	Constituency
1981	John Roper	Farnworth
1983	John Cartwright	Woolwich

Liberal Democrats

Year	Name	Constituency
1988	Jim Wallace	Orkney and Shetland
1992	Archy Kirkwood	Roxburgh and Berwickshire
1997	Paul Tyler	North Cornwall
2001	Andrew Stunell	Hazel Grove
2006	Paul Burstow	Sutton and Cheam
2010	Alistair Carmichael	Orkney and Shetland
2013	Don Foster	Bath
2015	Tom Brake	Carshalton and Wallington
2017	Alistair Carmichael	Orkney and Shetland
2020	Wendy Chamberlain	North East Fife

House of Lords

Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats
Incumbent The Lord Stoneham of Droxford since 2016
Appointer	Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Inaugural holder	The Viscount Falkland (Whigs) The Lord Tordoff (Liberal Democrats)
Formation	circa 1837 (as Chief Whip of the Whig Party) 1988 (in current form)

Whigs

Year	Name
1837	The Viscount Falkland
1840	none^1
1846	The Viscount Falkland
May 1848	The Earl of Bessborough

Liberal Party

Year	Name
1859	The Earl of Bessborough
Jan 1880	The Lord Monson (created Viscount Oxenbridge in 1886)
Aug 1892	The Lord Kensington
Oct 1896	The Lord Ribblesdale
May 1907	The Lord Denman
1911	The Lord Colebrooke
1922	none^2
1924	The Lord Stanmore
1944	The Viscount Mersey
1949	The Marquess of Willingdon
1950	The Lord Moynihan
1950	The Lord Rea
1955	The Lord Amulree
1977	The Lord Wigoder
1984	The Lord Tordoff^3

• ^1 Falkland was absent serving as Governor of Nova Scotia
• ^2 Colebrooke continued as Liberal Chief Whip in the Lloyd George coalition of 1916 to 1922. Denman was Chief Whip of the Opposition Asquith Liberals from 1919 to 1924
• ^3 Tordoff continued as Liberal Democrat Chief Whip following the merger

Social Democratic Party

Year	Name
1981	The Lord Kennet
1983	The Lord Kilmarnock
1986	The Baroness Stedman

Liberal Democrats

Year	Name
1988	The Lord Tordoff
1994	The Lord Harris of Greenwich[1]
2001	The Lord Roper
2005	The Lord Shutt of Greetland
2012	The Lord Newby
2016	The Lord Stoneham of Droxford[2]

Chief Whips of the National Liberal Party (Coalition Liberals), 1916–1923

Year	Name	Constituency
1916	Neil James Archibald Primrose	Wisbech
1916	Freddie Guest	East Dorset
1921	Charles McCurdy	Northampton
1922	Edward Hilton Young	Norwich

Chief Whips of the Liberal National Party (later National Liberal Party), 1931–1966

Year	Name	Constituency
1931	Alec Glassey	East Dorset
1931	Geoffrey Shakespeare	Norwich
1932	James Blindell (knighted in 1936)	Holland with Boston
1937	Charles Kerr	Montrose Burghs
1940	Herbert Holdsworth	Bradford South
1945	Herbert Butcher (knighted in 1953; created a Baronet in 1960)	Holland with Boston

See also

• Chief Whip of the Conservative Party
• Chief Whip of the Labour Party
• Chief Whip of Reform UK

References

1. "Obituary: Lord Harris of Greenwich". The Guardian. 13 April 2001.
2. "Ben Stoneham". Liberal Democrats. 24 January 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2018.

Bibliography

• Chris Cook and Brendan Keith, British Historical Facts 1830–1900, Macmillan, 1975
• David Butler and Gareth Butler, Twentieth-Century British Historical Facts 1900–2000, Macmillan, 2000