Chief Whip of the Conservative Party


The Chief Whip of the Conservative Party oversees the whipping system in the party, which is responsible for ensuring that Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative] MPs or list of current 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

YearNameConstituency
circa 1802William HolmesHaslemere
1835Sir George ClerkMidlothian (Edinburghshire)
1837Sir Thomas Francis FremantleBuckingham
1844Sir John YoungCavan
1846William BeresfordHarwich
1850Forbes MackenziePeeblesshire
1853Sir William JolliffePetersfield
1859Colonel Thomas Edward TaylorCounty Dublin
1868Gerard NoelRutland
1873Colonel Thomas Edward TaylorCounty Dublin
1874Sir William Hart DykeMid Kent
1880Rowland WinnNorth Lincolnshire
1885Aretas Akers-DouglasSt Augustine's
1895Sir William Hood WalrondTiverton
1902Sir Alexander Acland HoodWellington
1911Lord BalcarresChorley
1913Lord Edmund TalbotChichester
1921Leslie WilsonReading
1923Bolton Eyres-Monsell Evesham
1931David MargessonRugby
1941James StuartMoray and Nairn
1948Patrick Buchan-HepburnEast Toxteth
1955Edward HeathBexley
1959Martin RedmayneRushcliffe
1964William WhitelawPenrith and The Border
1970Francis PymCambridgeshire
1973Humphrey AtkinsSpelthorne
1979Michael JoplingWestmorland
1983John WakehamColchester and Maldon
1987David WaddingtonRibble Valley
1989Timothy RentonMid Sussex
1990Richard RyderMid Norfolk
1994Alastair GoodladEddisbury
1997James ArbuthnotNorth East Hampshire
2001David MacleanPenrith and The Border
2005Patrick McLoughlinWest Derbyshire
Derbyshire Dales
2012 Andrew MitchellSutton Coldfield
2012 Sir George YoungNorth West Hampshire
2014Michael GoveSurrey Heath
2015Mark HarperForest of Dean
2016–17Gavin WilliamsonSouth Staffordshire
2017–2019Julian SmithSkipton and Ripon
2019–2022Mark SpencerSherwood
2022 Chris Heaton-HarrisDaventry
2022 Wendy MortonAldridge-Brownhills
2022–2024Simon HartCarmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire
July 2024 – November 2024Stuart AndrewDaventry
November 2024 –Rebecca HarrisCastle Point

House of Lords

YearName
before 1852The Earl Nelson
1852The Lord Colville of Culross
c.1870The Lord Skelmersdale
1885The Earl of Kintore
1889The Earl of Limerick
1896The Earl Waldegrave
1911The Duke of Devonshire
1916The Lord Hylton
1922The Earl of Clarendon
1925The Earl of Plymouth
1929The Earl of Lucan
1940The Lord Templemore
1945The Earl Fortescue
1957The Earl St Aldwyn
1977The Lord Denham
1991The Lord Hesketh
1993The Viscount Ullswater
1994The Lord Strathclyde
1998The Lord Henley
2001The Lord Cope of Berkeley
2007The Lady Anelay of St Johns
2014The Lord Taylor of Holbeach
2019The Lord Ashton of Hyde
2022The 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.