Party Leadership Elections in the UK
| Author | Paula Keaveney |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2041905819854311 |
JUNE 2019 • POLITICAL INSIGHT 17
In UK politics, you are never far away from a
party leadership contest. If there isn’t one going
on, or planned, there is always speculation. But
putting aside the soap opera nature of much of
this punditry, leadership elections – and more
specically the rules around these elections –
tell us a lot about the dynamics and direction
of political parties. The contests themselves also
tell us what parties think leaders are for. Are the
leaders there to run things? To gain positive
media coverage? To embody the ‘brand
personality’ of the party? To be a potential, or
actual Prime Minister? To ensure the party’s
survival?
Thirty years of hurt?
Changes to leadership election rules usually
happen during a period of review and
introspection following a failure. Electoral
losses, or continued inability to make up
ground, give parties the impetus to look for
change. Another spark for leadership rule
change is the need to solve an internal or
perception problem, as we will see later in
Labour’s
Collins Report
.
So, what are the leadership election
processes in British politics and how have they
changed? Let’s start with Labour. Meg Russell’s
excellent work on the party’s internal changes
takes us from 1979 to 2004, covering systems
which elected Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock, John
Smith and Tony Blair.
Foot was the last Labour leader chosen just
by MPs. In 1981, the party’s special conference
at Wembley agreed that Trade Unions and
members would also have a role in a weighted
electoral college. And while the impact of
an individual MP’s vote was still considerably
greater than that of an individual in another
category, the power shift to non-MPs was
underway. The decision was seen as a move
to the left. Groups such as the Campaign for
Labour Party Democracy had been focusing
on leadership election changes for some time.
The Wembley Conference was one of the nal
triggers for the breakaway of some MPs to
form the Social Democratic Party.
A more recent Labour rule change,
Party Leadership
Elections in the UK
Across British politics, the rules that parties use to elect their leaderships
have changed dramatically in recent years. Paula Keaveney examines
how the major parties chose their figureheads.
Political Insight May 2019.indd 17 08/05/2019 10:55
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