Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)
# Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)

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. The first politician to hold the office as such was Reginald Maudling, appointed by Edward Heath in 1965. Distinct from being "second-in-command", there is formally no current position of deputy party leader in the party's hierarchy.

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

## List of deputy leaders

| Name | Term began | Term ended | Concurrent office(s) | Leader |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Reginald Maudling | 4 August 1965 | 18 July 1972 | Deputy Leader of the Opposition (1965–1970) Shadow Foreign Secretary (1965) Shadow Defence Secretary (1968–1969) Home Secretary (1970–1972) | Edward Heath |
| Not in use from 1972 to 1975 |||||
| The Viscount Whitelaw | 12 February 1975 | 7 August 1991 | Deputy Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979) Shadow Home Secretary (1976–1979) Home Secretary (1979–1983) Leader of the House of Lords (1983–1988) | Margaret Thatcher |
| The Viscount Whitelaw | 12 February 1975 | 7 August 1991 | Deputy Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979) Shadow Home Secretary (1976–1979) Home Secretary (1979–1983) Leader of the House of Lords (1983–1988) | John Major |
| Not in use from 1991 to 1998 |||||
| Peter Lilley | 2 June 1998 | 15 June 1999 | Deputy Leader of the Opposition (1998–1999) | William Hague |
| Not in use from 1999 to 2001 |||||
| Michael Ancram | 18 September 2001 | 6 December 2005 | Deputy Leader of the Opposition (2001–2005) Shadow Foreign Secretary (2001–2005) Shadow Defence Secretary (2005) | Iain Duncan Smith |
| Michael Ancram | 18 September 2001 | 6 December 2005 | Deputy Leader of the Opposition (2001–2005) Shadow Foreign Secretary (2001–2005) Shadow Defence Secretary (2005) | Michael Howard |
| Not in use since 2005 |||||
