1976 Liberal Party (UK) leadership election the only time it was ever used to elect a Liberal leader. The election was won by David Steel, who served as leader of the Liberal Party until merger with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1988, forming the Liberal Democrats. David Steel later served as interim leader of the Liberal Democrats (jointly with Bob Maclennan of the SDP) for the duration of the 1988 leadership election which eventually elected Paddy Ashdown as the new party's first permanent leader. 1976 Liberal Party (UK) leadership election The 1976 Liberal Party (UK) leadership election was called following the resignation of Jeremy Thorpe
Liberal Party of Australia (Queensland Division) it seemed increasingly likely the Liberals would be the larger party in any future coalition government, it also presented the awkward question of which party leader would be Premier, a question that Bruce Flegg, who replaced Quinn as leader in 2006, struggled to answer. A proposal was made in 2005 to merge the two parties but this provoked much opposition, including from the federal governing coalition. Following the federal defeat in the 2007 election and the proposal was revived, and in July 2008 under leader Mark McArdle the party agreed to merge with the Nationals as the Liberal National Party,