Any citizen eligibleto lead political party in UK

LONDON: Any citizen can lead a political party in Britain as party leader, its head and guide, and selecting someone a party leader is mainly related to a political party’s own constitution.

Nearly 200 right-wing, centrist, extreme right, extreme left, left-wing and liberal oriented parties are registered with the Electoral Commission and these parties operate as per their party constitution.

However, there are separate rules for the party’s parliamentary leaders in the House of Commons. The method of selection of the party leader varies from party to party and often it involves an election involving all or part of the party membership. 

Theresa May, MP, is Conservative Party Leader in the House of Commons as she heads her parliamentarians in the House of Commons, but Chairman of the Conservative Party is Sir Patrick McLoughlin since 14 July 2016. The role was created in 1911 in response to the Conservative party's defeat in the second 1910 general election and this position is not subject to election as it is in the gift of the party leader. 

The current leader of the Labour Party is Jeremy Corbyn since 12 September 2015. He is the opposition leader in the House of Commons and leads the parliamentary party. The National Executive Committee (NEC) is the chief administrative body of the Labour Party. Ian Lavery, a former trade union leader from Northumberland is the chair of Labour Party. 

The Labour Party has changed its procedures for electing its leader since the election of Ed Miliband and now “one member one vote” (OMOV) system is used where all Labour members, affiliated supporters and registered supporters shall have one vote of equal value.  In the Liberal Democrats, the party leader must be an MP. Its current leader is Sir Vince Cable since July 20, 2017, after being elected parliamentarian in this year’s general elections.  United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), Plaid Cymru and the Greens have no requirements for the party leader to be an MP and party leader is elected through internal party voting.

Leadership elections in the main three parties use a form of all-member postal ballots, although there are differences between them.

These parties elected their leaders through various party voting mechanisms but for other parties in the UK, candidates need not be MPs but must be proposed and assented to by party members. If only one candidate is nominated, he or she will become leader, but, if two or more candidates emerge, they will go through to an all-member postal ballot conducted under first-past-the-post. This mean anyone getting the largest share of votes gets elected. 

Green Party’s co-leaders are Jonathan Bartley (non-MP) & Caroline Lucas MP. UK Independence Party’s current leader is Henry Bolton, a retired police officer. 

Ulster Unionist Party’s leader is George Galaway (non-MP). 

Smaller parties such as British National Party, Socialist Workers Party, the Communist Party of Great Britain, Official Monster Raving Loony Party, 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP), Libertarian Party, One Love Party, Young People's Party UK, Workers' Revolutionary Party, Christian People’s Alliance, Christian Democratic Party, National Health Action Party, Respect Party, Scottish Libertarian Party and dozens of other parties have no MPs as their leaders, although some have a few councilors in their ranks.