Shadow Leader of the House of Commons

Not to be confused with Opposition House Leader.

The Shadow Leader of the House of Commons is a member of the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet responsible for working with the Leader of the House in arranging Commons business and holding the Government to account in its overall management of the House. The Shadow Leader also responds to the Business Statement of Leader of House each Thursday, though the Leader of the Opposition exercised this role until the late 1980s. The office is roughly equivalent to the Shadow Leader of the House of Lords.

Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Incumbent Jesse Norman since 5 November 2024
Appointer	Leader of the Opposition
Website	The Shadow Cabinet

Shadow Leaders

Name		Portrait	Took office	Left office	Political party	Leader of the Opposition
	Herbert Morrison[1]		1951	c. 1955	Labour	Clement Attlee
	Unknown				Labour	Hugh Gaitskell
						George Brown
						Harold Wilson
	Selwyn Lloyd		16 October 1964[n 1]	4 August 1965[5]	Conservative	Alec Douglas-Home
	Unknown/Vacant[n 2]		4 August 1965	19 June 1970	Conservative	Edward Heath
	Fred Peart		19 June 1970[n 3]	16 December 1971	Labour	Harold Wilson
	Michael Foot		16 December 1971[7]	6 December 1972	Labour
	Edward Short		6 December 1972[8]	4 March 1974	Labour
	James Prior		4 March 1974[9]	29 October 1974	Conservative	Edward Heath
	John Peyton		29 October 1974[10]	19 November 1976	Conservative
						Margaret Thatcher
	Francis Pym		19 November 1976[11]	Approx. 20 November 1978[n 4]	Conservative
	Norman St John-Stevas		Approx. 20 November 1978[n 4]	5 May 1979	Conservative
	Michael Foot		4 May 1979[15]	8 December 1980	Labour	James Callaghan
	John Silkin		8 December 1980[16]	30 October 1983	Labour	Michael Foot
	Peter Shore		30 October 1983[17]	13 July 1987	Labour	Neil Kinnock
	Frank Dobson		13 July 1987[18]	2 November 1989	Labour
	John Cunningham		2 November 1989[19]	24 July 1992	Labour
	Margaret Beckett		24 July 1992[20]	13 May 1994	Labour	John Smith
	Nick Brown (Acting)		13 May 1994[21]	21 July 1994	Labour	Margaret Beckett
	Margaret Beckett		21 July 1994	20 October 1994	Labour	Tony Blair
	Ann Taylor		20 October 1994[22]	2 May 1997	Labour
	Alastair Goodlad		May 1997[23]	30 June 1997	Conservative	John Major
	Gillian Shephard		30 June 1997[24]	2 June 1998	Conservative	William Hague
	Sir George Young		1 June 1998[25]	22 September 2000[26]	Conservative
	Angela Browning		26 September 2000 [27]	18 September 2001	Conservative
	Eric Forth		18 September 2001[28]	10 November 2003	Conservative	Iain Duncan Smith
	Oliver Heald		10 November 2003[29]	10 May 2005	Conservative	Michael Howard
	Chris Grayling		10 May 2005[30]	8 December 2005	Conservative
	Theresa May		8 December 2005[31]	19 January 2009	Conservative	David Cameron
	Alan Duncan		19 January 2009[32]	7 September 2009[33]	Conservative
	Sir George Young		8 September 2009[34]	11 May 2010	Conservative
	Rosie Winterton		12 May 2010	8 October 2010	Labour	Harriet Harman
	Hilary Benn		8 October 2010	7 October 2011[35]	Labour	Ed Miliband
	Angela Eagle		7 October 2011[35]	13 September 2015	Labour
						Harriet Harman
	Chris Bryant		13 September 2015	26 June 2016	Labour	Jeremy Corbyn
	Paul Flynn		4 July 2016	6 October 2016	Labour
	Valerie Vaz		6 October 2016	9 May 2021	Labour
						Sir Keir Starmer
	Thangam Debbonaire		9 May 2021	4 September 2023	Labour
	Lucy Powell		4 September 2023	5 July 2024	Labour
	Chris Philp		8 July 2024	5 November 2024	Conservative	Rishi Sunak
	Jesse Norman		5 November 2024	Incumbent	Conservative	Kemi Badenoch

Notes

1. Lloyd was Leader of the House before the Conservatives lost the 1964 election and was "retained" in the portfolio of "co-ordination of the Opposition in the Commons.^[2] It is not clear whether the Conservative party at this point used the term "Shadow Leader" to describe the job,^[3] but the term was used.^[4]
2. Edward Heath reshuffled the Conservative front bench after being elected leader in the summer of 1964, though he rejected the term "Shadow Cabinet" and instituted a "federal system", three Shadow ministers being in charge of a general area (foreign, economic, and home affairs). For example, Alec Douglas-Home headed foreign affairs, sitting above the Shadow Foreign and Defence Secretaries. The former members of the Shadow Cabinet remained, but three members had no specific responsibilities.^[6] It is unclear whether Heath himself was in effect Shadow Leader of the House, as would have been common before the Second World War, or the responsibilities were assigned to one or more shadow ministers.
3. Peart was Leader of the House going into Labour's election loss on 18 June 1970 and left the role of Shadow Leader of the House on 16 December 1971.^[7] There is no evidence that anyone else served as Shadow Leader between those dates.
4. In October 1978, Pym was made Shadow Foreign Secretary,^[12] and St John-Stevas succeeded him.^[13][14]