Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)

The **Leader of the Opposition** (sometimes known as the **Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons**) in the United Kingdom is the politician who leads His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition is normally the leader of the second largest party in the House of Commons.

The current Leader of the Opposition is Rishi Sunak, the Leader of the Conservative Party. Sunak assumed the position on 5 July 2024, after his party lost the 2024 election.

## List of leaders of the opposition (1911–present)

|rowspan=2 colspan="2" class=unsortable|Portrait|rowspan=2 class=unsortable|Leader of the Opposition|colspan=3 scope="colgroup"|Term of office|rowspan=2|Elections|rowspan=2|Party|rowspan=2|Shadow cabinet|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="background-color: "|||_Sir Edward Carson_|19 October 1915|6 December 1916|||—||Conservative|rowspan="21"|||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="3"|||H. H. Asquith|6 December 1916|14 December 1918|||1918|rowspan="3"|Independent Liberal||||||
||_Sir Donald Maclean_|14 December 1918|12 February 1920|||—||||||||||
||H. H. Asquith|12 February 1920|21 November 1922|||1922||||||||||
|style="background-color: "|||Ramsay MacDonald|21 November 1922|22 January 1924|||1923||Labour||||||
|style="background-color: "|||Stanley Baldwin|22 January 1924|4 November 1924|||1924||Conservative||||||
|style="background-color: "|||Ramsay MacDonald|4 November 1924|5 June 1929|||1929||Labour||||||
|style="background-color: "|||Stanley Baldwin|5 June 1929|24 August 1931|||—||Conservative||||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="7"|||Arthur Henderson|1 September 1931|25 October 1932|||1931|rowspan="7"|Labour||||||
||George Lansbury|25 October 1932|8 October 1935|||—||||||||||
||Clement Attlee|25 October 1935|11 May 1940|||1935||||||||||
||_Hastings Lees-Smith_|22 May 1940|18 December 1941|||—||||||||||
||_Frederick Pethick-Lawrence_|21 January 1942|February 1942|||—||||||||||
||_Arthur Greenwood_|February 1942|23 May 1945|||—||||||||||
||Clement Attlee|23 May 1945|26 July 1945|||1945||||||||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Winston Churchill|rowspan="2"|26 July 1945|rowspan="2"|26 October 1951|rowspan="2"|||1950|rowspan="2"|Conservative|
||1951|||||||||||||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="5"|||Clement Attlee|26 October 1951|25 November 1955|||1955|rowspan="5"|Labour||||||
||_Herbert Morrison_|25 November 1955|14 December 1955|||—||||||||||
||Hugh Gaitskell|14 December 1955|18 January 1963|||1959||||||||||
||_George Brown_|18 January 1963|14 February 1963|||—||||||||||
||Harold Wilson|14 February 1963|16 October 1964|||1964||Wilson I||||||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="3"|||Sir Alec Douglas-Home|16 October 1964|28 July 1965|||—||Conservative||Douglas-Home||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Edward Heath|rowspan="2"|28 July 1965|rowspan="2"|19 June 1970|rowspan="2"|||1966|rowspan="2"|Conservative|rowspan="2"|Heath I|
||1970|||||||||||||||
|style="background-color: "|||Harold Wilson|19 June 1970|4 March 1974|||Feb 1974||Labour||Wilson II||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="2"|||Edward Heath|4 March 1974|11 February 1975|||Oct 1974|rowspan="2"|Conservative||Heath II||||
||Margaret Thatcher|11 February 1975|4 May 1979|||1979||Thatcher||||||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="7"|||James Callaghan|4 May 1979|10 November 1980|||—|rowspan="7"|Labour||Callaghan||||
||Michael Foot|10 November 1980|2 October 1983|||1983||Foot||||||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Neil Kinnock|rowspan="2"|2 October 1983|rowspan="2"|18 July 1992|rowspan="2"|||1987|rowspan="2"|Kinnock|||
||1992|||||||||||||||
||John Smith|18 July 1992|12 May 1994|||—||Smith||||||||
||_Margaret Beckett_|12 May 1994|21 July 1994|||—||Beckett||||||||
||Tony Blair|21 July 1994|2 May 1997|||1997||Blair||||||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="5"|||John Major|2 May 1997|19 June 1997|||—|rowspan="5"|Conservative||Major||||
||William Hague|19 June 1997|13 September 2001|||2001||Hague||||||||
||Iain Duncan Smith|13 September 2001|6 November 2003|||—||Duncan Smith||||||||
||Michael Howard|6 November 2003|6 December 2005|||2005||Howard||||||||
||David Cameron|6 December 2005|11 May 2010|||2010||Cameron||||||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="6"|||_Harriet Harman_|11 May 2010|25 September 2010|||—|rowspan="6"|Labour||Harman I||||
||Ed Miliband|25 September 2010|8 May 2015|||2015||Miliband||||||||
||_Harriet Harman_|8 May 2015|12 September 2015|||—||Harman II||||||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Jeremy Corbyn|rowspan="2"|12 September 2015|rowspan="2"|4 April 2020|rowspan="2"|||2017|rowspan="2"|Corbyn|||
||2019|||||||||||||||
||Sir Keir Starmer|4 April 2020|5 July 2024|||2024||Starmer||||||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="1"|||Rishi Sunak|5 July 2024|2 November 2024|||—|rowspan="2"|Conservative||Sunak||||
|style="background-color: " rowspan="1"|||Kemi Badenoch|2 November 2024|_Incumbent_|||—||Badenoch||||||

## Infobox (political post)

- **post**: Leader of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition
- **style**: Leader of the Opposition
(informal)
The Right Honourable
(formal)
- **insignia**: Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
- **insigniacaption**: Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom
- **image**: Official portrait of Kemi Badenoch MP crop 3, 2024 (cropped).jpg
- **incumbent**: Kemi Badenoch
- **incumbentsince**: 2 November 2024
- **appointer**: Largest political party in the House of Commons that is not in government
- **termlength**: While leader of the largest political party in the House of Commons that is not in government
- **department**: His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition (United Kingdom), Official Opposition
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Leader of the Opposition's Office
- **salary**: £144,649
(including £81,932 Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP salary)
- **inaugural**: William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, The Lord Grenville
- **formation**: March 1807
Ministers of the Crown Act 1937, 1 July 1937 (Statutory)
- **deputy**: Shadow First Secretary of State
- **website**: [https://members.parliament.uk/Opposition/Cabinet His Majesty's Official Opposition: The Shadow Cabinet]