The 2014 British Presidential election was the thirteenth presidential election to be held in Britain. It was held on Thursday,9 October 2014.. The election was held to elect a successor to Josephine Clay, with the winner to be inaugurated as the ninth President of Britain on 30 October 2011. Two by-elections to the House of Commons and indirect elections to the House of Councillors were held the same day.
To qualify for the presidential ballot, candidates must be a British citizen, of at least 35 years of age and be nominated by at least 90 Members of the Houses of Parliament, or at least 1,000 municipal councillors or members of Home Rule administrations. The president is elected, like Westminster MPs. by a ranked-choice ballot.
The Radical Party nominated former Foreign Secretary and Mayor of Manchester Adam Carson after an internal ballot of senior party members. The independent candidacies of Sian Kettle and Aaron Scotland were nominated with the support of municipal councillors and Home Rule parliamentarians; Kettle's campaign was supported by the Irish nationalist Saor Éire, the Democratic Left alliance and several trade unions while Scotland campaign was supported by the Centre Party and the implicit support of outgoing President Clay. Former Ecumene leader Roy Gibbs was supported by his party and several independent MPs.
The previously dominant Unionist Party declined to nominate a candidate following their disastrous general election performance the previous year, with a meeting of the Unionist Parliamentary Party in June 2014 deciding against a formal campaign for financial reasons and the unlikelihood of a successful Unionist candidacy, especially with Carson emerging as the frontrunner so early on. Instead, Mantel announced that Unionist MPs, National Councillors, municipal councillors and members of Home Rule Parliaments would be free to nominate candidates of their choice. 99 Unionist MPs chose to nominate the businesswoman Rachel Sinclair, a former Unionist supporter running a self-funded independent campaign. Several other MPs chose to support the campaign of Scotland or Gibbs. Mantel's decision caused significant divisions and infighting within the Unionist Party, ultimately leading to his resignation in shortly after the presidential election.
Despite the President lacking direct powers to affect government policy, the campaign became a referendum on the Radical government's entry into the Association of European States. Carson supported Prime Minister Helen Kendrick's efforts. Ecumene candidate Roy Gibbs did as well, but argued that his election would create a mandate for Britain's role within the association, to be focused more on securing Europe's borders and security than the third world.
Sinclair and Kettle both stated their opposition to British membership while Scotland suggested that a referendum should be held on the issue. Sinclair went as far as to suggest that she might attempt to use her presidential powers to veto legislation; there was controversy among constitutional experts over her ability to do so. The prospect of a constitutional crisis was widely seen to harm the anti-Association campaign and unite supporters of Britain's membership.
Carson's decisive victory in the third round gave him the largest personal mandate of any British President up to that point. He became the first British head of state of non-European ancestry, and served until his resignation in 2017.