Chairman of The Parliamentary Labour Party
The Chairman of the PLP chairs meetings of the Parliamentary party. He or she is elected by Labour MPs at the start of each annual session of Parliament. By tradition, only elections at the start of each Parliament, following a general election, are competitive.
From 1921 to 1970, the Chairman of the PLP was also the leader of the party as a whole (before 1921, leadership of the party was arguably split between the Chairman of the PLP, the General Secretary and the Party Chairman). When the leaders of the Labour Party joined coalition governments during the First and Second World Wars, an acting chairman was appointed to lead the rump of the party in Opposition. When the Party was in government, a liaison committee was elected to facilitate communications between the cabinet and Labour backbenchers – the chairman of this committee also chaired meetings of the PLP as a whole during these periods. In 1970, the positions of Leader of the Labour Party and Chairman of the PLP were permanently split.
- Keir Hardie (1906–08)
- Arthur Henderson (1908–10)
- George Barnes (1910–11)
- Ramsay Macdonald (1911–14)
- Arthur Henderson (1914–17)
- John Hodge (1915–16) – in Opposition
- George Wardle (1916–17) – in Opposition
- William Adamson (1917–21)
- J. R. Clynes (1921–22)
- Ramsay Macdonald (1922–31)
- Robert Smillie (1924) – Liaison Committee
- Harry Snell (1929–30) – Liaison Committee
- James Barr (1930–31) – Liaison Committee
- Arthur Henderson (1931)
- George Lansbury (1931–35)
- Clement Attlee (1935–55)
- Hastings Lees-Smith (1940–42) – in Opposition
- Frederick Pethick-Lawrence (1942) – in Opposition
- Arthur Greenwood (1942–45) – in Opposition
- Neil Maclean (1945–46) – Liaison Committee
- Maurice Webb (1946–50) – Liaison Committee
- Glenvil Hall (1950–51) – Liaison Committee
- Hugh Gaitskell (1955–63)
- Harold Wilson (1963–70)
- Emanuel Shinwell (1964–67) – Liaison Committee
- Douglas Houghton (1967–70) – Liaison Committee
- Douglas Houghton (1970–74)
- Ian Mikardo (1974)
- Cledwyn Hughes (1974–79)
- Fred Willey (1979–81)
- Jack Dormand (1981–87)
- Stanley Orme (1987–92)
- Doug Hoyle (1992–97)
- Clive Soley (1997–01)
- Jean Corston (2001–05)
- Ann Clwyd (2005–06)
- Tony Lloyd (2006–12)
- David Watts (2012–)
Read more about this topic: Parliamentary Labour Party
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