The Right Honourable Charles Peter Kennedy (born November 25, 1959) is a British politician and Member of Parliament, who has been leader of the Liberal Democrats (the third largest political party in the United Kingdom) since 1999.

Born in Inverness, he was educated at Lochaber High School and went on to study for a Masters in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. It was at university that he became politically active, he was a member of the Dialectical Society (a debating club) but he was not a member of the Labour Club. While at university he was elected president of Glasgow University Union and won the British Observer Mace university debating award. GUU was the last all-male student union in the world, during his time as president Kennedy opposed admitting women as members, but conceded defeat under pressure from the University Court. Shortly after he joined the Social Democrats (SDP).

Upon graduation in 1982 he went to work for BBC Highland as a journalist, and later received a Fulbright Fellowship allowing him to carry out research at Indiana University in the United States.

While studying in America he also received the SDP nomination for the Scottish seat of Ross, Cromarty & Skye which he went on to win in 1983, becoming the youngest sitting member of parliament. He has retained the seat and its successor Ross, Skye & Inverness West at four subsequent general elections.

In the late 1980s the SDP and the Liberal Party, which had been co-operating in the SDP-Liberal Alliance, merged to form the Social and Liberal Democratic Party, later renamed the Liberal Democrats.

On August 9, 1999 he was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats after the retirement of Paddy Ashdown.

In July 2002 Charles Kennedy married Sarah Gurling.

Reports of Kennedy's ill-health in 2003 at the time of crucial debates on Iraq and the budget were linked to stories of his reputed alcoholism

Although Kennedy has been dismissed as light weight by some observers as a result of his appearances on the satirical current-events panel game Have I Got News For You, opinion polls have shown him to be positively regarded as a party leader and potential Prime Minister by a significant fraction of the British electorate. Kennedy maintains the long standing aspiration for his party to break through to the status of official opposition. In this objective he has enjoyed mixed success. In terms of share of the popular vote in the 2001 General Election, the Liberal Democrats fell short of the Conservative Party by a margin of ten percentage points, contrasting with the deficit of just two percentage points the SDP/Liberal Alliance achieved relative to the opposition Labour Party in 1983. However, Kennedy has focussed the Party's regional campaigning in such a way as to turn a lower level of national support into a greater number of Parliamentary seats. He has proposed to extend this strategy at the next general election to target the seats held by the most senior and/or highly regarded Conservative MPs in the hope of supplanting the Conservatives as official opposition by the "decapitation" of their party in Parliament.

Preceded by: Paddy Ashdown

Leader of the British Liberal Democrats 1999-

Followed by: Current Incumbent

See also

• Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet

External links

• Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP http://www.charleskennedy.org.uk/ official site
• Guardian Unlimited Politics Ask Aristotle - Charles Kennedy http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,,-2864.html
• They Work For You - Charles Kennedy MP http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/?pid=10334
• - Anti Charles Kennedy website http://www.charleskennedy.co.uk