The Chief Whip of the Conservative Party oversees the whipping system in the party, which is responsible for ensuring that Conservative MPs or members of the House of Lords attend and vote in parliament in the desired way of the party leadership. Chief Whips, of which two are appointed in the party, a member of the House of Commons and a member of the House of Lords, also help to organise their party's contribution to parliamentary business.

The party leadership may allow members to have a free vote based on their own conscience rather than party policy, which means the chief whip is not required to influence the way members vote.

This is a list of people who have served as Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, previously the Tory Party, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

House of Commons

YearNameConstituencycirca 1802William HolmesHaslemere1835Sir George ClerkMidlothian (Edinburghshire)1837Sir Thomas Francis FremantleBuckingham1844Sir John YoungCavan1846William BeresfordHarwich1850Forbes MackenziePeeblesshire1853Sir William JolliffePetersfield1859Colonel Thomas Edward TaylorCounty Dublin1868Gerard NoelRutland1873Colonel Thomas Edward TaylorCounty Dublin1874Sir William Hart DykeMid Kent1880Rowland WinnNorth Lincolnshire1885Aretas Akers-DouglasSt Augustine's1895Sir William Hood WalrondTiverton1902Sir Alexander Acland HoodWellington1911Lord BalcarresChorley1913Lord Edmund TalbotChichester1921Leslie WilsonReading1923Bolton Eyres-Monsell (knighted in 1929)Evesham1931David MargessonRugby1941James StuartMoray and Nairn1948Patrick Buchan-HepburnEast Toxteth1955Edward HeathBexley1959Martin RedmayneRushcliffe1964William WhitelawPenrith and The Border1970Francis PymCambridgeshire1973Humphrey AtkinsSpelthorne1979Michael JoplingWestmorland1983John WakehamColchester and Maldon1987 David WaddingtonRibble Valley1989 Timothy RentonMid Sussex1990 Richard RyderMid Norfolk1994 Alastair GoodladEddisbury1997 James ArbuthnotNorth East Hampshire2001 David MacleanPenrith and The Border2005 Patrick McLoughlinWest Derbyshire (2005–2010) Derbyshire Dales (2010–2012)2012 (September) Andrew MitchellSutton Coldfield2012 (October) Sir George YoungNorth West Hampshire2014 Michael GoveSurrey Heath2015 Mark HarperForest of Dean2016–17 Gavin Williamson South Staffordshire2017–2019 Julian Smith Skipton and Ripon2019–2022 Mark Spencer Sherwood2022 (February) Chris Heaton-Harris Daventry2022 (September) Wendy Morton Aldridge-Brownhills2022 (October) Simon Hart Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire2024 (July) Stuart Andrew Daventry2024 (November) Rebecca Harris Castle Point

House of Lords

YearNamebefore 1852The Earl Nelson1852The Lord Colville of Culrossc.1870The Lord Skelmersdale (created Earl of Lathom in 1880)1885The Earl of Kintore1889 The Earl of Limerick1896The Earl Waldegrave1911The Duke of Devonshire1916The Lord Hylton1922The Earl of Clarendon1925The Earl of Plymouth1929The Earl of Lucan1940The Lord Templemore1945The Earl Fortescue1957The Earl St Aldwyn1977The Lord Denham1991The Lord Hesketh1993The Viscount Ullswater1994The Lord Strathclyde1998The Lord Henley2001The Lord Cope of Berkeley2007The Lady Anelay of St Johns2014The Lord Taylor of Holbeach2019The Lord Ashton of Hyde2022The Baroness Williams of Trafford

In popular culture Francis Urquhart is a fictional Conservative Chief Whip, created by Michael Dobbs, formerly Chief of Staff for British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Urquhart was the main character in Dobbs's trilogy of books, that were turned into successful BBC television dramas in the 1990s. The first book in the trilogy, House of Cards, was adapted and broadcast by the BBC in 1990. This was subsequently followed by a 1993 adaptation of the second element of the trilogy, To Play The King. The third part, The Final Cut, aired in 1995. The trilogy charts Urquhart's ambitious rise through his party's ranks until he becomes Prime Minister. Urquhart was played by Ian Richardson.

See also

Chief Whip of the Labour Party Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats Chief Whip of Reform UK

References

Sources Chris Cook and Brendan Keith, British Historical Facts 1830–1900, Macmillan, 1975, pp. 92–93. David Butler and Gareth Butler, Twentieth-Century British Historical Facts 1900–2000, Macmillan, 2000.