Electing and Ejecting Party Leaders in Britain

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
List of Figures......Page 11
List of Tables......Page 12
List of Boxes......Page 14
Acknowledgements......Page 15
List of Abbreviations......Page 17
 The rise of all-member ballots in UK party leadership elections......Page 18
 Methodology......Page 21
 Structure of the book......Page 22
1 Electing and Ejecting Party Leaders......Page 25
 MPs, party members and ideology......Page 26
 Leadership selection criteria......Page 29
 Ejecting party leaders......Page 32
 Leader-eviction methods......Page 37
 Conclusion......Page 47
2 Selection and Ejection by the Parliamentary Party......Page 48
 Leader selection and ejection by MPs......Page 49
 The Conservative Party leadership election of 1997......Page 56
 Ejecting leaders......Page 61
 Conclusion......Page 72
3 The Labour Party: The Electoral College......Page 74
 The electoral college......Page 75
 Leadership contests in the electoral college, 1983–2007......Page 80
 The Labour Party leadership election of 2010......Page 81
 Selection criteria in 2010......Page 89
 Seeking to eject Labour leaders I: Tony Blair......Page 99
 Seeking to eject Labour leaders II: Gordon Brown......Page 103
 Conclusion: The distribution of power in the electoral college......Page 111
 Reforming the Conservatives' selection system......Page 114
 The Conservative Party leadership election of 2001......Page 120
 The Conservative Party leadership election of 2005......Page 124
 Selection criteria and the 2005 contest......Page 128
 Assessing the role of party members in Conservative leadership selection......Page 136
 The eviction of Duncan Smith......Page 138
 Conclusion......Page 146
5 The Liberal Democrats: One Member-One Vote......Page 148
 Historical antecedents......Page 149
 Liberal Democrat leadership selection rules and leadership elections 1988–99......Page 150
 The fall of Charles Kennedy......Page 154
 The Liberal Democrat leadership election of 2006......Page 161
 The Liberal Democrat leadership election of 2007......Page 167
 Conclusion: MPs, party members and power in the Liberal Democrats......Page 172
 Selection criteria, 1963–2010......Page 175
 The competitiveness of leadership elections......Page 181
 Age and experience......Page 187
 Ejecting party leaders: An assessment......Page 194
 Conclusion......Page 203
Appendix A: Labour Party Leadership Election Results 1955–2010......Page 206
Appendix B: Conservative Party Leadership Election Results 1965–2005......Page 209
Appendix C: Liberal Party, Social Democratic Party and Liberal Democrat Leadership Election Results 1967–2007......Page 212
Appendix D: Green Party of England and Wales......Page 214
Appendix E: United Kingdom Independence Party......Page 216
Appendix F: British National Party......Page 218
Appendix G: Scottish National Party......Page 220
Appendix H: Plaid Cymru......Page 222
Appendix I: Labour Party Leaders in Scotland and Wales......Page 223
Appendix J: Conservative Party Leaders in Scotland and Wales......Page 225
Appendix K: Liberal Democrat Leaders in Scotland and Wales......Page 226
Appendix L: Donations to Candidates in Party Leadership Contests 2001–10......Page 228
Appendix M: Proposed Labour Leadership Election Timetable 2009......Page 231
Notes......Page 233
Index......Page 254