This article listspolitical parties in Scotland.
TheScottish National Party (SNP) is the mainpolitical party inScotland which primarily supports Scotland becoming an independent nation. They have also supported furtherdevolution as a progression towards independence. They are overallcentre-left, and sometimes consideredbig-tent, advocatingsocial democracy,nuclear disarmament and closer ties to theEuropean Union. They were founded in 1934 and formed a permanent grouping inHouse of Commons in 1967. Their best election result in the 20th century was at thegeneral election of October 1974 in which they won 11 of Scotland's 72 Westminster seats as well as around 30% of the popular vote, however they lost all but two of these seats in1979. Support for the party was bolstered under the leadership ofAlex Salmond, who in2011 led the SNP to their best electoral performance to date, in which they became the first party in the devolvedScottish Parliament to win a majority of seats. They form the Scottish government, and are now led byScotland's First Minister,John Swinney. They have 64 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and 9 Members of theParliament of the United Kingdom (MPs).
TheScottish Conservatives are the Scottish wing of the UK-wideConservative Party. They were founded in 1965 out of the merger of theScottish Unionist Party, which had been a dominant political force in Scotland for much of the early 20th century, winning the majority of votes and seats in the1931 general election and1955 general election. However the party went into decline, being reduced from 21 Scottish seats in 1983, to 10 in 1987. The1997 general election was a catastrophe for the Scottish Conservatives, who were left with no Scottish seats whatsoever. However the party won 18 seats in the Scottish Parliament in the1999 election due toproportional representation. From 2001 to 2017, the Conservatives held one Scottish seat in the UK parliament, but had its best result in the 21st century in the2017 general election when it returned 13 seats and just short of a third of the vote. Like the widerUK Conservative Party, the party is a centre-right party, which promotes conservatism andBritish unionism. They currently have 31 MSPs, led in the Scottish Parliament until recently byDouglas Ross, and 5 MPs.
Scottish Labour is the Scottish wing of the Great Britain-wideLabour Party. It was the most successful party in Scottish elections from 1964 to 2007. Like the widerUK Labour Party, they are centre-left and they promoteBritish unionism.[citation needed] They first overtook the Conservatives as Scotland's largest party at the1959 general election. In 1997, the UK Labour Party underTony Blair offered Scotland areferendum on devolution which was passed with around 74% of the electorate in favour. From 1999 to 2007, they were in power in the Scottish Parliament through a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. From 2008 to 2011, the party was led byIain Gray in the Scottish Parliament, who announced his resignation after the party's defeat at the2011 Scottish election.Johann Lamont became leader in 2011 and resigned in 2014 after an internal dispute within the party. Subsequently, they were led byJim Murphy,Kezia Dugdale andRichard Leonard. They currently have 37 MPs and 22 MSPs. As of 2021[update] they are led byAnas Sarwar MSP.
TheScottish Liberal Democrats are the Scottish wing of the Great Britain-wideLiberal Democrats party. It is a centrist,social liberal andBritish unionist party. The BritishLiberal Democrats they are part of were formed in 1988 when theLiberal Party and theSocial Democratic Party merged. Their leader isAlex Cole-Hamilton. Since the formation of theConservative–Liberal Democrat coalition at Westminster, support for the Liberal Democrats has fallen sharply, and the party won five seats at the2011 Scottish parliamentary election. They also lost their Scottish MEP at the2014 European elections. They also lost 10 of their 11 House of Commons seats at the 2015 general election, with Deputy LeaderAlistair Carmichael the only MP managing to keep his seat. They currently have four MSPs and six MPs.
TheScottish Greens sit between the centre-left and the left-wing. The party promotesgreen politics, Scottish independence,equality andradical democracy. It retains close ties with theGreen Party of England and Wales and theGreen Party Northern Ireland, having all originated in the breakup of the UKGreen Party. However, all three parties are now fully independent. The Scottish Greens won their first seat in the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and currently have 7 MSPs, but have never returned any MPs.
Reform UK Scotland is the Scottish wing of the UK-wideReform UK. It is aEurosceptic andright-wing populist party. The party gained its first elected representative in January 2021, when sitting independent MSPMichelle Ballantyne joined the party and became leader of the party in Scotland. Ballantyne was previously a Conservative MSP. She resigned from the party in November 2020, citing differences with the new leader Douglas Ross before joining.[1][2] Ballantyne lost this seat in the 2021 Scottish Scottish Parliament election, leaving the party with no elected representatives in Scotland.
There are six parties in Scotland that have elected representation in either the Scottish Parliament or the House of Commons. All except the Scottish Greens and Reform UK have representation in both. In addition, all parties have elected representation at the local government level.
There are three parties in Scotland that have elected representation only at the local government level.
There are a number of notable registered parties in Scotland with no elected representation. Some operate exclusively within Scotland, while others may also be active in other parts of the United Kingdom.
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