Leader of HM Opposition

Rt Hon Sir Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston 19 February 185811 June 1859
Rt Hon Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon-Harcourt October 1896December 1898
Rt Hon Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 6 February 18995 December 1905
Rt Hon Arthur James Balfour 5 December 190513 November 1911
Rt Hon Andrew Bonar Law 13 November 191115 May 1915
Rt Hon Sir Edward Henry Carson 19 October 19156 December 1916
Rt Hon Henry Herbert Asquith 6 December 19163 February 1919
Rt Hon Sir Donald Maclean 3 February 191912 February 1920
Rt Hon Henry Herbert Asquith 192021 November 1922
James Ramsay MacDonald 21 November 192222 January 1924
Rt Hon Stanley Baldwin 22 January 19244 November 1924
Rt Hon James Ramsay MacDonald 4 November 19248 June 1929
Rt Hon Stanley Baldwin 8 June 192924 August 1931
Rt Hon Arthur Henderson 24 August 1931November 1931
Rt Hon George Lansbury November 193125 October 1935
Rt Hon Clement Richard Attlee 8 October 193522 May 1940
Rt Hon Hastings Bertrand Lees-Smith 22 May 194021 January 1942
Rt Hon Arthur Greenwood February 194223 May 1945
Rt Hon Clement Richard Attlee 23 May 194526 July 1945
Rt Hon Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill 26 July 194526 October 1951
Rt Hon Clement Richard Attlee 26 October 195114 December 1955
Rt Hon Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell 14 December 195518 January 1963
Rt Hon James Harold Wilson 14 February 196316 October 1964
Rt Hon Sir Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home 16 October 196427 July 1965
Rt Hon Edward Richard George Heath 27 July 196519 June 1970
Rt Hon James Harold Wilson 19 June 19704 March 1974
Rt Hon Edward Richard George Heath 4 March 197411 February 1975
Rt Hon Margaret Hilda Thatcher 11 February 19754 May 1979
Rt Hon Leonard James Callaghan 4 May 19793 November 1980
Rt Hon Michael Mackintosh Foot 3 November 19802 October 1983
Rt Hon Neil Gordon Kinnock 2 October 198318 July 1992
Rt Hon John Smith 18 July 199212 May 1994
Rt Hon Margaret Mary Beckett 12 May 199412 July 1994
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair 21 July 19942 May 1997
Rt Hon John Roy Major 2 May 199719 June 1997
Rt Hon William Jefferson Hague 19 June 199713 September 2001
George Iain Duncan-Smith 13 September 20016 November 2003
Rt Hon Michael Howard 6 November 20036 December 2005
David William Donald Cameron 6 December 200511 May 2010
Rt Hon Harriet Ruth Harman 11 May 201025 September 2010
Rt Hon Edward Samuel Miliband 25 September 20108 May 2015
Rt Hon Harriet Ruth Harman 8 May 201512 September 2015
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn 12 September 20154 April 2020
Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer 4 April 2020