Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)

The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party is the second highest ranking politician in the British Labour Party. The Deputy Leader also serves as the Deputy Chairperson of the Labour Party, and acts as Leader in the House in events where the leader cannot.

Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
Incumbent Angela Rayner since 4 April 2020
Reports to	Leader of the Labour Party
Appointer	Labour Party
Inaugural holder	John Robert Clynes
Formation	1922

History

The Labour Leader does not have the power to appoint or dismiss their Deputy. The post is instead directly elected by party members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters on a one-member-one-vote basis; before 2015, it was elected using the party's former electoral college system; and before 1981, it was elected by Labour MPs.

Recently, the office of Deputy Prime Minister has been revived and held by senior politicians in the governing party. A previous Labour Deputy Leader, John Prescott, held this post from 1997 to 2007. However, the Deputy Leader is essentially a party official and there is no constitutional link between the two roles. The former Labour British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced on his formal election as Labour Leader that the newly elected Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman, would instead become Party Chair. Brown subsequently appointed her Leader of the House of Commons in his first cabinet.

In the event of a vacancy in the office of Leader when the Labour Party is in opposition, the Deputy Leader automatically becomes temporary Leader of the Party until a new leader is elected. If a vacancy in the leadership occurs while the Labour Party is in government, then the Cabinet, in consultation with the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, chooses a new leader, who serves until a new Leader is elected. Such a vacancy has occurred only twice, when Harold Wilson resigned as Leader and Prime Minister in 1976, and when Tony Blair did so in 2007, but each remained in office until, respectively, James Callaghan and Gordon Brown had been elected as successor, and so no Acting Leader was required to take over.

To date, the only Deputy Leaders who have gone on to be elected Leader of the Labour Party are Clement Attlee and Michael Foot. Margaret Beckett briefly served as Labour Leader following the unexpected death of John Smith in 1994. Harriet Harman was Leader after Gordon Brown resigned in 2010 and after Ed Miliband resigned in 2015. Conversely, John Robert Clynes served as Leader prior to becoming Deputy Leader.

List of deputy leaders of the Labour Party

Portrait			Constituency	Term began	Term ended	Concurrent office(s)	Leader(s)
1	John Robert Clynes (1869–1949)		Manchester Platting Lost seat 1931	22 November 1922	25 October 1932	Home Secretary		MacDonald
								Henderson
2	William Graham (1887–1932) (jointly with Clynes)		Edinburgh Central Lost seat 1931	28 August 1931	8 January 1932 Died in office	President of the Board of Trade
3	Clement Attlee (1883–1967)		Limehouse	25 October 1932	8 October 1935 Elected leader	None		Lansbury
Vacant								Attlee
4	Arthur Greenwood (1880–1954)		Wakefield	26 November 1935	25 May 1945	Minister without portfolio
5	Herbert Morrison (1888–1965)		Lewisham East then Lewisham South	25 May 1945	14 December 1955	Deputy Prime Minister Foreign Secretary Leader of the House of Commons
								Himself (acting)
Vacant								Gaitskell
6	Jim Griffiths (1890–1975)		Llanelli	2 February 1956	4 May 1959	None
7	Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960)		Ebbw Vale	4 May 1959	6 July 1960 Died in office	None
Vacant
8	George Brown (1914–1985)		Belper	15 July 1960	18 June 1970 Lost seat 1970	Deputy Prime Minister First Secretary of State Foreign Secretary Secretary of State for Economic Affairs
								Himself (acting)
								Wilson
Vacant
9	Roy Jenkins (1920–2003)		Birmingham Stechford	8 July 1970	10 April 1972	Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Vacant
10	Edward Short (1912–2012)		Newcastle upon Tyne Central	25 April 1972	21 October 1976	Leader of the House of Commons
								Callaghan
11	Michael Foot (1913–2010)		Ebbw Vale	21 October 1976	10 November 1980 Elected leader	Leader of the House of Commons
12	Denis Healey (1917–2015)		Leeds East	13 November 1980	2 October 1983	Shadow Foreign Secretary		Foot
13	Roy Hattersley (born 1932)		Birmingham Sparkbrook	2 October 1983	18 July 1992	Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Shadow Home Secretary		Kinnock
14	Margaret Beckett (born 1943)		Derby South	18 July 1992	21 July 1994	Shadow Leader of the House of Commons		Smith
								Herself (acting)
15	John Prescott (1938–2024)		Kingston upon Hull East	21 July 1994	24 June 2007	Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom First Secretary of State Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions		Blair
16	Harriet Harman (born 1950)		Camberwell and Peckham	24 June 2007	12 September 2015	Leader of the House of Commons Lord Privy Seal Minister for Women and Equalities Labour Party Chair Shadow Deputy Prime Minister Leader of the Opposition		Brown
								Herself (acting)
								Miliband
								Herself (acting)
17	Tom Watson (born 1967)		West Bromwich East	12 September 2015	12 December 2019	Shadow minister for the Cabinet Office Chair of the Labour Party Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport		Corbyn
Vacant
18	Angela Rayner (born 1980)		Ashton-under-Lyne	4 April 2020	Incumbent	Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Shadow First Secretary of State		Starmer

Timeline

See also

• Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)
• Deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats