If the party leader gets voted out of their constituency, does that mean they cannot be leader?

For example, Gordon Brown gets voted out of his constituency and cannot be prime minister, or Nick Clegg doesn't win the polls in Sheffield.|||In theory, no. In practice, yes.





There are no rules about this but it "the system" doesn't work if a major party leader isn't an MP.





This is particularly so if the party leader in question leads the party who has just won a general election. This is a fascinating point - the post of Prime Minister is not defined anywhere and is simply a non-statutory Royal appointment, so in theory the Prime Minister could be someone who isn't in Parliament at all, and in the past there have been Prime Ministers from the House of Lords, but the last one was over 100 years ago, and a Prime Minister in the House of Lords couldn't be quizzed at the weekly Prime Minister's Question Time.





Imagine the situation if the Conservative Party wins a small overall majority on 6 May but the voters of Witney don't elect David Cameron as their MP. (Very hard to imagine, but just supposing.) There is absolutely nothing to stop him being made Lord Cameron, he takes his seat in the House of Lords, and the Queen appoints him Prime Minister. But it just wouldn't be acceptable. So much of how Parliament works these days just wouldn't be able to work. And he wouldn't accept it as it would stop him from ever being elected an MP again.





The undoubted result of any major party leader being voted out in their constituency is that the party would have a leadership election.|||In practice yes, but it might be technically possible. For example Gordon Brown could be booted up into the House of Lords. Members of the Upper House can be a minister so it is possible that they might also legally become made Prime Minister. It would be an absurd thing to happen, but so was Labour leaving John Prescott as acting P.M. for a couple of weeks.|||If it's Brown, we all know how he managed to get the twice sacked and disgraced Pete Mandelson back into office. Labour knows all the tricks on how to make non elected politicians cabinet Ministers.|||Isn't it a wonderful thought that neither Brown, Cameron or Clegg will win in their own constituency :)





HTH|||Yes. A non sitting MP cannot be a PM. They would have to be moved to The House Of Lords... where they can do as much damage as they like.|||That's a really interesting q|||Yes but this unlikely to happen