UK Election - can a party leader become PM if he is not an MP?

Yes. In theory, at any rate. The Prime Minister is a royal appointment and the Queen can appoint whoever she likes. It is merely constitutional convention (so this isn't written down anywhere - I'd have to point you to respected books on it such as Bagehot) that she should appoint whoever is most likely to command a majority in the Commons and lead a stable government. So yes, in theory, this could be done.

However, the modern expectation is that the Prime Minister should sit in the Commons so he can be accountable to it, so if the winning party leader loses his seat, most likely the party will pick an MP to be Prime Minister pro tem while they get a leadership election arranged. Once upon a time this was so easy when both major parties simply ballotted their MPs and elected the leader. If push came to shove, they could do it in a week or two. But now they ballot the whole party membership (and Labour has to get the unions involved as well), it takes months - we can't wait that long, so they need an interim leader.

The last time we had a Prime Minister who didn't sit in Parliament was Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963 (briefly). At that time the Conservatives didn't elect their leader; the party grandees just picked one and they came up with Lord Home. This didn't go down well - he's a lord. He used the recently-enacted Peerages Act to give up his peerage, the safest Conservative seat in Scotland was conveniently vacant, he stood for election there and won. But of course it takes time to hold a by-election, so for 20 days he was Prime Minister without being a member of either House. Oh yes, it CAN be done.

This applies to all other Ministers as well - in theory the Queen can appoint anyone, whether in Parliament or not. And because they are royal appointments, they stay in office even if Parliament is dissolved, so we currently have a fully staffed government even though Parliament currently does not exist until the election has occurred.

For an example of that, Patrick Gordon Walker lost his seat at the 1964 general election. Harold Wilson wanted him as Foreign Secretary, and the Queen duly appointed him. But this did not look good and Gordon Walker really needed a by-election to win, so Wilson found him one - the MP for Leyton could be persuaded to accept a life peerage and go, thus causing a by-election. Gordon Walker duly stood for election in Leyton, but it was blindingly obvious to everyone that the whole thing had been engineered to get him a seat. The voters of Leyton, bless 'em, objected to being used as tools just so the PM could get a Minister he wants and elected the Tory. And that was the end of the last ministerial appointment conducted entirely outside of Parliament.

No. You must be a member of Parliament, as that is the only way you can be held accountable BY Parliament.

That's why party leaders are always moved to safe seats.

Yes, but he or she cannot address parliament. Have you thought of voting for an alterative political party like the BNP

http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/national/bnp-punishing-...

Red

No. because he is no longer an MP, just another man in the street.

No