Leader of the House of Lords
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Leader of the House of Lords is a function in the British government that is always held in combination with a formal Cabinet position, most often Lord President of the Council, Lord Privy Seal or Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Leader of the House takes charge of the government's business in the House of Lords. 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.
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 Speaker of the Lords, he has no power to rule on points of order or to intervene during an inappropriate speech.
Under the plans for constitutional change announced in June 2003 (and following recommendations made by the Select Committee in November 2003, and agreed by the House of Lords on January 12 2004), these responsibilities to the House will almost certainly be transferred to the Speaker, remaining within the framework of self-regulation. The Speaker will in future be elected by the House and required to give up party politics, whilst the Leader will remain an appointed member of the Cabinet and become the most senior member of his party in the House.
History
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 (under Lord Aberdeen, for instance, it was Lord John Russell, leader of the Whigs, who led business in the Commons).
After the end 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 Lord Hailsham also being designated "Minister of Science" or Lady Jay of Paddington also being "Minister for Women".
The first female Leader of the Lords was Lady Young in 1981-1983.
Leaders of the House of Lords
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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.
- Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend 1721-1730
- ? 1730-1742
- John Carteret, 2nd Baron Carteret 1742-1744
- Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle 1744-1756
- William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire 1756-1757
- Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle 1757-1762
- John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute 1762-1763
- ? 1763-1765
- Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham 1765-1766
- Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton 1766-1770
- ? 1770-1782
- Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham 1782
- William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne 1782-1783
- William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland 1783
- Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney 1783-1789
- Francis Godolphin Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds 1789-1790
- William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville 1790-1801
- ? 1801-1803
- Robert Banks Jenkinson, Baron Hawkesbury 1803-1806
- William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville 1806-1807
- Robert Banks Jenkinson, Baron Hawkesbury (2nd Earl of Liverpool from 1808) 1807-1827
- Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich 1827-1828
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington 1828-1830
- Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (November 22, 1830 - July 9, 1834)
- William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (July 16, 1834 - November 14, 1834)
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (November 17, 1834 - April 8, 1835)
- William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (April 18, 1835 - August 30, 1841)
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (September 3, 1841 - June 27, 1846)
- Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (July 6, 1846 - February 21, 1852)
- Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (February 23, 1852 - December 17, 1852)
- George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (December 19, 1852 - January 30, 1855)
- Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (February 8, 1855 - February 21, 1858)
- Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (February 21, 1858 - June 11, 1859)
- Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (June 18, 1859 - October 29, 1865)
- John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (October 29, 1865 - June 26, 1866)
- Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (June 28, 1866 - February 25, 1868)
- James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury (February 27, 1868 - December 1, 1868)
- Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (December 9, 1868 - February 17, 1874)
- Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond (February 21, 1874 - August 21, 1876)
- Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (August 21, 1876 - April 21, 1880)
- Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (April 28, 1880 - June 9, 1885)
- Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (June 23, 1885 - January 28, 1886)
- Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (February 6, 1886 - July 20, 1886)
- Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (July 25, 1886 - August 11, 1892)
- John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley (August 18, 1892 - March 5, 1894)
- Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (March 5, 1894 - June 21, 1895)
- Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (June 25, 1895 - July 11, 1902)
- Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire (July 12, 1902 - October 13, 1903)
- Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (October 13, 1903 - December 4, 1905)
- George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon (December 10, 1905 - April 14, 1908)
- Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe (April 14, 1908 - December 10, 1916)
- George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (December 10, 1916 - January 22, 1924)
- Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor and Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane jointly (January 22, 1924 - November 3, 1924)
- George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (November 6, 1924 - April 27, 1925)
- James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury (April 27, 1925 - June 4, 1929)
- Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor (June 7, 1929 - August 24, 1931)
- Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading (August 25, 1931 - November 5, 1931)
- Douglas McGarel Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham (November 5, 1931 - June 7, 1935)
- Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry (June 7, 1935 - November 22, 1935)
- Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 3rd Viscount Halifax (November 22, 1935 - October 27, 1938)
- James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope (October 27, 1938 - May 14, 1940)
- Thomas Walker Hobart Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote (May 14, 1940 - October 3, 1940)
- Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 3rd Viscount Halifax (October 3, 1940 - December 22, 1940)
- George Ambrose Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd (December 22, 1940 - February 4, 1941) (Died in office)
- Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne (February 8, 1941 - February 21, 1942)
- Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne (February 21, 1942 - July 26, 1945)
- Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison (August 3, 1945 - October 26, 1951)
- Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury (October 28, 1951 - March 29, 1957) (Resigned)
- Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home (March 29, 1957 - July 27, 1960)
- Quintin McGarel Hogg, 2nd Viscount Hailsham (July 27, 1960 - October 20, 1963)
- Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington (October 20, 1963 - October 16, 1964)
- Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford (October 18, 1964 - January 16, 1968) (Resigned)
- Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton, Baron Shackleton (January 16, 1968 - June 19, 1970)
- George Patrick John Rushworth Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe (June 20, 1970 - May 23, 1973) (Resigned)
- David James George Hennessy, 3rd Baron Windlesham (June 5, 1973 - March 4, 1974)
- Malcolm Newton Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd (March 7, 1974 - September 10, 1976)
- Thomas Frederick Peart, Baron Peart (September 10, 1976 - May 4, 1979)
- Arthur Christopher John Soames, Baron Soames (May 5, 1979 - September 14, 1981)
- Janet Mary Young, Baroness Young (September 14, 1981 - June 11, 1983)
- William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw (June 11, 1983 - January 10, 1988)
- John Julian Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead (January 10, 1988 - November 28, 1990)
- David Charles Waddington, Baron Waddington (November 28, 1990 - April 11, 1992)
- John Wakeham, Baron Wakeham (April 11, 1992 - July 20, 1994)
- Robert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne (July 20, 1994 - May 2, 1997)
- Ivor Seward Richard, Baron Richard of Ammanford (May 2, 1997 - July 27, 1998)
- Margaret Ann Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington (July 27, 1998 - June 8, 2001)
- Gareth Wyn Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn (June 8, 2001 - September 20, 2003) (Died in office)
- Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos (October 6, 2003 -)