Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK) of the Party until a new leader is elected. If a vacancy in the leadership occurs while the Labour Party is in government, then the Cabinet, in consultation with the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, chooses a new leader, who serves until a new leader is elected. To date, the only Deputy Leaders who have gone on to become the elected leader of the Labour Party are Clement Attlee and Michael Foot. Margaret Beckett briefly served as Labour leader following the unexpected death of John Smith in 1994. Harriet Harman was leader after Gordon Brown resigned in 2010
First MacDonald ministry between the Asquith and Lloyd George Liberal Party factions. Baldwin advised King George V to send for MacDonald, since the Labour Party held more seats in the Commons than the Liberals. MacDonald accepted the King's commission later that day, arriving with his Labour colleagues, to the amusement of many and dismay of others, in full court dress. MacDonald had become Labour's first proper leader in 1922. As well as being Prime Minister, he became his own Foreign Secretary, a dual role which he performed well enough, but which alienated the second man in the party, Arthur Henderson, who became Home