Selection and Ejection by the Parliamentary Party

Abstract

The use of parliamentary ballots to select, and sometimes to evict, party leaders had a long history in British parties, although not quite as long as commonly supposed. Labour used parliamentary ballots to select its leaders from the party’s formation in 1900, although until 1922 leaders were called chairmen and typically served for only a year or two. The system remained in place until the formation of the electoral college in 1981. The Conservatives did not adopt parliamentary ballots for leadership selection until 1965, before which Tory leaders ‘emerged’ during confidential discussions among party elites. The party switched to a hybrid parliamentary-membership ballot system in 1998. The Liberal Party used a variety of means to choose its leaders but only once, in 1967, was a parliamentary ballot used in a contested election. In 1976, the party adopted a form of one member-one vote (OMOV). The Liberal Democrats have never used parliamentary ballots.