Leader of the Liberal Party (UK) election) party members argued for a wider franchise. Before the leadership election of 1976, all members were given a vote in an electoral college based on allocating electoral votes to constituency associations (which were then divided proportionately to the votes of the members of the association). The candidates were required to be members of the House of Commons, nominated by a quarter of the MPs. The electoral college system was only used once, when David Steel was elected leader. Leader of the Liberal Party (UK) The Liberal Party was formally established in 1859 and existed until merging with the Social
National Party (UK, 1976) National Party (UK, 1976) The National Party (NP) was a short lived conservative splinter party from the British National Front (NF). It was formed on 6 January 1976, and was dissolved before the 1983 general election. The origins of the party were the result of internal dissention within the Monday Club over "entry to the EEC and immigration" which led to "several leading Powellites" leaving the Conservative Party for the NF, and of later ideological disagreements within the National Front. John Kingsley Read became leader of the NF in 1974, but faced resistance from John Tyndall and his supporters for