Up until relatively recently, the role of leading the House of Commons was usually taken by the Prime Minister of the day, if he was a Member of the House; only when the Leader of a Ministry happened to sit in the Lords was it necessary to make a separate appointment to act as its chief spokesman in the Commons. Only since the Second World War has the position been routinely separated from that of the Prime Minister. Biographies of individual members of Parliament are compiled by the History of Parliament Trust, so far for the period up to 1832: details of the work of the Trust may be found on its website at
www.history.ac.uk/hop

21st Century
20th Century
19th Century
18th Century