On 9 August 1999, Charles Kennedy was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats following a postal ballot of the party’s members.
The 39-year-old Scottish MP defeated Simon Hughes in the fourth and final round by 28,425 votes to 21,833.
Kennedy succeeded Paddy Ashdown, who had led the party since its formation and established it as a significant third force in British politics.
During nearly six and a half years as leader, Kennedy would oppose the Iraq War and take the Liberal Democrats to their best House of Commons result for generations.
A five-candidate leadership contest
Ashdown announced in January 1999 that he intended to stand down after more than a decade as leader.
Five Liberal Democrat MPs entered the contest to succeed him: Charles Kennedy, Simon Hughes, Malcolm Bruce, Jackie Ballard and David Rendel.
The election was conducted through a postal ballot of the entire party membership using the alternative vote system. Members ranked candidates in order of preference, with the lowest-placed contender eliminated after each round and their votes redistributed until one candidate secured a majority.
The contest went through four counts. Kennedy ultimately received 56.6% of the votes remaining in the final round, compared with Hughes’s 43.4%.
Reported turnout was just over 51,000 members, approximately 62% of those eligible to vote.
Who was Charles Kennedy?
Kennedy was born in Inverness in 1959 and grew up in the Scottish Highlands. He studied politics and philosophy at the University of Glasgow, where he became president of the students’ union and developed a reputation as a confident debater.
He joined the newly created Social Democratic Party and entered Parliament at the 1983 general election, defeating Conservative minister Hamish Gray in Ross, Cromarty and Skye.
Kennedy was only 23 when elected, making him the youngest MP in the House of Commons at the time.
He supported the merger of the SDP and Liberal Party that created the Liberal Democrats. He subsequently held frontbench responsibilities covering health and foreign affairs and served as party president between 1991 and 1994.
By 1999, his frequent television appearances and relaxed public manner had made him one of the party’s best-known figures.
Following Paddy Ashdown
Ashdown had led the Liberal Democrats through a difficult beginning following the merger of the Liberal Party and SDP.
At the 1997 general election, the party won 46 seats—more than twice its total at the previous election—despite receiving a slightly smaller share of the national vote.
Ashdown had also developed a working relationship with Labour leader Tony Blair. Liberal Democrat and Labour representatives co-operated on constitutional reform, while Ashdown explored whether closer collaboration between the parties might become possible.
The future of that relationship was one of the important questions facing the 1999 candidates. Hughes was associated with a more independent approach, while Kennedy was seen as more willing to preserve elements of Ashdown’s co-operation with Labour.
Kennedy nevertheless made clear after his victory that the Liberal Democrats should develop their own identity and ambitions.
‘A serious party of government’
Accepting the leadership, Kennedy said he wanted the Liberal Democrats to become a serious party of government.
He praised Hughes for conducting a positive campaign and promised to work with him in taking the party’s message to the wider electorate.
Kennedy’s communication style differed considerably from Ashdown’s. He appeared conversational, humorous and less formal than many leading politicians of the period.
Critics sometimes called him “Chatshow Charlie” because of his appearances on entertainment and panel programmes. Yet that ease before a general audience became one of his political strengths, helping him connect with voters who did not closely follow Westminster.
The 2001 general election
Kennedy faced his first general election as leader in June 2001.
The Liberal Democrats campaigned on investment in public services, constitutional reform and opposition to some of Labour’s more authoritarian measures. They won 52 seats, six more than in 1997, with 18.3% of the national vote.
The result strengthened Kennedy’s position and demonstrated that the gains achieved under Ashdown could be retained and expanded.
However, the defining political decision of Kennedy’s leadership came during the approach to war in Iraq.
Opposition to the Iraq War
Kennedy led the Liberal Democrats in opposing British participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq without a further United Nations resolution explicitly authorising military action.
He addressed the large anti-war demonstration in London in February 2003 and argued that the case for immediate invasion had not been established.
The position distinguished the Liberal Democrats from Tony Blair’s Labour government and the Conservative opposition, both of which supported military action.
Kennedy faced criticism from supporters of the invasion, but his stance became central to his political legacy—particularly after intelligence and planning surrounding the war came under sustained scrutiny.
A record result in 2005
At the 2005 general election, the Liberal Democrats won 62 seats and 22.1% of the vote.
It was the party’s largest number of MPs and the strongest Commons representation achieved by the wider Liberal tradition since 1923.
The party gained a number of constituencies from Labour, helped by opposition to the Iraq War and concern about the government’s record on civil liberties. It also established itself more firmly in parts of urban Britain while retaining important support in Scotland, Wales and south-west England.
The result fell short of some ambitious pre-election predictions, but it represented the electoral high point of Kennedy’s leadership.
Resignation in 2006
Questions about Kennedy’s health and leadership increased after the 2005 election.
On 5 January 2006, he publicly acknowledged that he had received treatment for an alcohol problem and initially proposed holding a new leadership election in which he would stand.
After losing the support of his parliamentary colleagues, Kennedy resigned as leader on 7 January. Menzies Campbell became acting leader and subsequently won the election to replace him.
Kennedy remained a Liberal Democrat MP and continued to contribute from the back benches. In 2010, he opposed the agreement that created the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition.
Three decades in Parliament
Kennedy represented Highland constituencies continuously from 1983 until the 2015 general election, when he lost Ross, Skye and Lochaber to the SNP’s Ian Blackford.
He died at his home in Fort William on 1 June 2015, aged 55. Tributes from across politics remembered his warmth, humour, political courage and ability to communicate beyond his own party.
His leadership ended in difficult circumstances, but the electoral record was substantial: Liberal Democrat representation rose from 46 MPs when he inherited the party to 62 at his final general election as leader.
For many supporters, his principled opposition to the Iraq War remained his most important decision.
On 9 August 1999, however, that record lay ahead. Party members had chosen a young Highland MP with an informal style to follow Paddy Ashdown and lead the Liberal Democrats into a new political era.