Talk:Leader of the House of Commons

I have the following probable additions to the list (with sources):

but also
 * Anthony Eden 1942-1945
 * 10 Downing Street profile
 * Herbert Stanley Morrison 1945-1951
 * AIM25 listing of Morrison archives
 * (someone else when Morrison became Foreign Secretary?)
 * Harry Frederick Comfort Crookshank 1951-55
 * Crookshank papers at the Bodleian Library
 * Richard Austen Butler 1955-1961
 * Columbia Encyclopedia entry at infoplease.com
 * Iain Macleod 1961-1963
 * Google cache of Enfield council website
 * Macleod refused to serve under Home in 1963-64
 * Selwyn Lloyd 1963-4
 * Churchill College, Cambridge archives
 * Edward Heath 1960-1963
 * Guardian profile of Heath (I think the Grauniad has got this wrong - he was LPS and FO minister during this time)

I should go to the library and try to find a proper source. --rbrwr

There can be some confusion as there are occassions when the PM formally took the position of Leader of the House, but the day to day duties were handled by someone else. If I recall correctly, Churchill was actually the formal leader for the period 1940-1942 (after a proposal to have Chamberlain was blocked by the Labour Party) but the day to day tasks were done by Attlee. Similarly in the 1924 Labour government MacDonald was formally leader, but most of the job was done by J.R. Clynes, who was formally Deputy Leader of the House. Timrollpickering 17:38, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Perhaps we should indicate both the official leader and the de facto leader in such instances. john 20:00, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Does anyone have any sense on who was leading the commons during the period between Pitt's resignation in April 1757 and the establishment of the Newcastle-Pitt ministry in July? Legge resigned, and what you've got left of senior ministers is Devonshire (Treasury), Holdernesse (Secretary of State), Granville (Lord President), Gower (Lord Privy Seal), Winchilsea (Admiralty)....all Lords. In terms of more junior posts, George Grenville was Treasurer of the Navy. Would it have been him? john k 03:37, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

I am concerned that there is no history of the office in the article - that was what I came looking for. You give a list of the holders of the office since 1721 - what's the office / role before then! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ender's Shadow Snr (talk • contribs) 00:18, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

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Russell in 1834
In what sense was Russell leader of the House in 1834? Earl Spencer died on November 10, elevating Althorp to the House of Lords. Melbourne then advised the king that Russell should become leader of the House. The King instead fired the ministry on November 14 and called for Wellington. It seems fairly clear that Russell was not, during the four days that interceded between Althorp's elevation and the ministry's fall, considered to be yet the leader of the House of Commons. Unless someone can explain why he should be so considered, I am going to remove him. john k (talk) 01:45, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

1990-92
The article says it was John MacGregor, however Hansard says it was Nicholas Baker (politician), though Hansard doesn't give an end date (suggesting their information may be wrong). I don't know either way. I have emailed Hansard to ask them to check their own records. 93.96.236.8 (talk) 11:51, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Business Statement.
Greetings Rrius. I made an amendment to this to provide an easier reference to the Business statement. I didn't intend to change the sense but your correction sounded a little fierce! In any event your edit makes the article is better than it was 2 days ago but I reinserted the reference. Regards JRPG (talk) 15:51, 4 April 2010 (UTC)
 * What I said, that the Leader of the House doesn't establish the business by fiat, was not a response to you; it was an explanation of my noting the whips. On the other point about the reference, the link you provided has nothing to do with the text aside from the tenuous connection of having recent business statements linked. There is no discussion there of what the business statement is, so I am (once again) removing it. -Rrius (talk) 17:18, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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taking PMQs
"When there is either no Deputy Prime Minister or First Secretary of State, or either the Deputy Prime Minister or First Secretary of State is unavailable, the Leader of the House may stand in for an absent Prime Minister at Prime Minister's Questions, although this procedure is relatively unusual." From 2007 to 2010, Harriet Harman took questions at PMQs in Brown's absence. She did it for a 3-year period. Also William Hague took questions as the Leader of the House on more than one occasion when Cameron and Clegg were absent or unavailable. It doesn't seem like unusual practice to me. It seems more like regular practice in the absence of the Prime Minister. 98.10.179.163 (talk) 22:01, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

Disagree.

Harriet Harman was Deputy Labour Leader from 2007-10, and William Hague was First Secretary of State and de facto Conservative deputy leader. — Preceding unsigned comment added by J1995421 (talk • contribs) 03:00, 8 December 2017 (UTC)


 * It generally has little directly to do with a politician's post in a party, though that can influence the position they get in government. The general rule of thumb is that the order for standing in at PMQs is the Deputy Prime Minister, then the First Secretary of State (if an MP) then the Leader of the House of Commons. Any two of the three posts have been held simultaneously by the same person and both DPM and FSoS have had periods of not being used plus there was a time when the FSoS was a peer. I think the "relatively unusual" dates from a period when there was a Deputy Prime Minister and so it really was rare for the Leader of the House to do the job although it could happen - for instance there was one in late 2005 when both Blair and Prescott were away so Geoff Hoon did it. Timrollpickering 22:27, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

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Vandalism
Incumbent is not "Corncob Rees-Mogg" DeputyBeagle (talk) 00:02, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Andrea Leadsom
Why aren't Andrea Leadsom and others Right Honourables, as Lord Presidents of the Council? Weatherford (talk) 09:48, 28 July 2019 (UTC)
 * They were, it just hasn't been added to the list. I did a lot of work on the list some ago and simply didn't add it (some other lists of ministerial office holders have prefixes, suffixes, and birth-death included in the column). By all means add them if you think the article would be better for it. ToastButterToast (talk) 10:05, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

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1834 vacancy
Should there not be a vacancy listed in 1834 between Viscount Althorp and Robert Peel. Althorp ceased to hold office on 14th November following the fall of the Melbourne ministry. This ministry was replaced on a temporary basis by a caretaker ministry, which did not include a Leader of the House of Commons, with the post not being filled until Peel's government was formed later in December. Dunarc (talk) 21:07, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

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