Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)

The Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party is sometimes an official title of a senior Conservative politician of the United Kingdom.

Some are given this title officially by the party, such as Peter Lilley, while others are given the title as an unofficial description by the media, such as William Hague. Distinct from being "second-in-command", there is formally no current position of deputy party leader in the party's hierarchy. Unlike the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, whenever the position has existed, it has been conferred through appointment and selection by the party leader, and not by party-wide elections. Government and other official titles often accompanying the deputy party leadership are Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Secretary of State and/or Deputy Leader of the Opposition, or their equivalent, and may be indicated by a single front bench MP being assigned to stand in for the party leader at the Despatch Box during Prime Minister's Questions when the party leader is absent. Perhaps because of the often unofficial nature of the position, reliable sources can sometimes differ over who the deputy actually is or was.

The term has sometimes been mistakenly used to refer to the party's deputy chair.

Many of the following people served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and/or Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, a role sometimes seen as deputy to the leader, especially in view of the secondary title of the Chancellor as Second Lord of the Treasury. Further information stating the formalisation of these persons' roles as deputy, such as standing in at Prime Minister's Questions in the party leader's absence, is still required.

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