Former business minister Jo Swinson is the new deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.
She was elected unopposed after no other candidates were declared by Tuesday's 5pm deadline, a spokesman for the party said.
Ms Swinson, who regained her East Dunbartonshire seat from the DUP in the general election, had been an early favourite to succeed Tim Farron as leader following his resignation.
However, she opted instead to stand as deputy.
On Tuesday, Sir Vince Cable launched his bid to lead the party by saying he had the “experience” for the job.
The 74-year-old rebuffed claims he is too old to succeed Tim Farron by arguing he could inject hard-won “credibility” to the third party.
Mr Farron announced he was stepping down from the role on Wednesday, citing scrutiny over his Christian faith as reasons contributing to his decision.
At a speech to staff in party HQ in London, Mr Farron said: “From the very first day of my leadership, I have faced questions about my Christian faith.
“At the start of this election, I found myself under scrutiny again - asked about matters to do with my faith.
“I felt guilty that this focus was distracting attention from our campaign, obscuring our message.
“Journalists have every right to ask what they see fit. The consequences of the focus on my faith is that I have found myself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader.
“A better, wiser person than me may have been able to deal with this more successfully, to have remained faithful to Christ while leading a political party in the current environment.
“To be a political leader - especially of a progressive, liberal party in 2017 - and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible's teaching, has felt impossible for me.
“I'm a liberal to my finger tips, and that liberalism means that I am passionate about defending the rights and liberties of people who believe different things to me.
“There are Christians in politics who take the view that they should impose the tenets of faith on society, but I have not taken that approach because I disagree with it - it's not liberal and it is counterproductive when it comes to advancing the gospel.
“Even so, I seem to be the subject of suspicion because of what I believe and who my faith is in.
“In which case we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society.
“That's why I have chosen to step down as leader of the Liberal Democrats.”
