was a British Liberal Democrat politician, who led the Liberal Democrats from 9 August 1999 until 7 January 2006. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 2015, latterly for the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency.
At the 1983 general election, he stood for Ross, Cromarty and Skye, then held by the Conservative Hamish Gray. In a shock result, Kennedy was elected for the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He quickly emerged as a potential party leader. In 1994, after the SDP and Liberal Party had merged, he became President of the Liberal Democrats, a position he held for the next four years. In 1999, after the resignation of Paddy Ashdown, Kennedy was elected party leader.