The Glass Cliff in Contemporary British Politics: The gendered and intersectional consequences of crisis-driven party leadership contests

What type of leaders emerge from party leadership contests held during political crisis? Multiple political crises – the Brexit referendum, negotiating a Brexit deal, navigating Covid-19, and post-Covid political and financial instability – have plagued Britain’s leaders in and outside the government. The resignation of five successive prime ministers and leaders of Britain’s Conservative Party between 2016 and 2024 resulted in the ascension of two ethnic majority women, one ethnic majority man, one ethnic minority man, and one ethnic minority woman to the party’s top political post. We argue that the nature of a crisis is critical to explaining this outcome, and take advantage of the Party’s hybrid parliamentary-membership ballot process to show how this increase in diversity occurs. We also underscore the gendered, ethnic, and intersectional implications of pushing women, ethnic minority men, and women of colour into roles that perpetually sets them atop one of the highest glass cliffs in politics.