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Unionist Party
Founded	1912
Dissolved	1965
Preceded by	Conservative Party Liberal Unionist Party
Merged into	Scottish Conservatives
Ideology	Conservatism British unionism British imperialism Scottishregionalism
Political position	Centre-right
National affiliation	Conservative Party
Politics of Scotland Political parties Elections

TheUnionist Party was the main centre-right political party in Scotland between 1912 and 1965.^[1]

Independent of, although associated with, theConservative Party inEngland and Wales, it stood for election at different periods of its history in alliance with a fewLiberal Unionist andNational Liberal candidates. Those who became members of parliament (MPs) would take the ConservativeWhip at Westminster as theUlster Unionists did until 1972. At Westminster, the differences between the Scottish Unionist and the English party could appear blurred or non-existent to the external casual observer, especially as many Scottish MPs were prominent in the parliamentary Conservative Party. Examples include party leadersBonar Law (1911–1921 and 1922–1923) andSir Alec Douglas-Home (1963–1965), both of whom served asPrime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The party traditionally did not stand at the local government level but it instead supported and assisted theProgressive Party in its campaigns against theLabour Party. This relationship ended when the Conservatives started fielding their own candidates, who stood against both Labour and the Progressives.

The origins of the Scottish Unionist Party lie in the 1886 split of theLiberal Party and the emergence of theLiberal Unionists underJoseph Chamberlain. The union in question was the1800 Irish Union, not theScottish Union of 1707. Before this, the Tory party in Scotland had never achieved parity with the dominant Whig and Scottish Liberal ascendancy since theelection reforms of 1832. The Liberal Unionists quickly agreed to an electoral pact with the Tories, and in Scotland this overcame the former electoral dominance of the Scottish Liberals.

After the 1912 merger of Liberal Unionists and Conservatives as the Conservative and Unionist Party, the Scottish Unionist Party effectively acted as the Conservative Party in Scotland, although some candidates still stood on a Liberal Unionist ticket because of the latent appeal of the word "Liberal" in Scotland.

Popularimperial unity was the central thread of the Scottish Unionist Party's belief system. While the Scottish Unionist party was linked on a Parliamentary level with the Conservative Party in England and Wales, it was conscious that it had to appeal to the liberal tradition in Scotland, and so until 1965; it studiously avoided using the term "Conservative".^[1] For example, it used Conservative Party literature but changed the word 'Conservative' to 'Unionist'.^[2]

The party built up significant working-class support by emphasising the connection between the Union, the Empire, and the fate of local industry. Unity across the classes was often cited as one of the party's planks of unionism. Along with thisprotectionism,protestantism also played an important part in the party's working-class appeal. Although not explicitly articulated by the party, lest it alienate what small but wealthy middle and upper-classCatholic support it had, this appeal was projected through the endorsement and promotion of well-knownChurch of Scotland members likeJohn Buchan, or prominentOrangemen in areas of west and central Scotland where theGrand Orange Lodge of Scotland had strong support. Prominent Orangemen includedSir John Gilmour, the intermittentSecretary for Scotland in the 1920s andHome Secretary in the 1930s. Some saw this as ananti-Catholic appointment; however, it was Gilmour who, as the Secretary for Scotland, repudiated the Church of Scotland's highly controversial report entitled "The Menace of the Irish Race to our Scottish Nationality".

Being an independent Scottish party also drew electoral appeal when set against the threat of aLondon-based centralisingLabour Party. A crucial aspect of this, particularly in the 1940s and 1950s, was the ability to place an "alien" identity upon Labour by successfully using the term "Socialist" to describe the Labour Party.^[1] This distinctively Scottish appeal was further strengthened when combined with opposition to the Labour Party's post-warnationalisation programme, which centralised control (in London) of former Scottish-owned businesses and council-run services. The strong Scottish character of the party was even evident in relations with Conservative government ministers, when, for example,Lord Glendevon admitted he would be at odds with Scotland's Unionist Party for refusing the post ofSecretary of State for Scotland because he preferred to remain atWestminster.^[3]

The party's campaigns reflected their desire to reconcile the themes ofindividualism andcollectivism in their appeal to potential Labour voters. This projected an image of flexibility andpragmatism when they expressed their support for the synthesis of "two fundamental ideas of human individuality and of service to others and to the community."^[1]

With the Liberal Party divided and declining, the Scottish Unionist Party managed to attract former Liberal voters during this period – sometimes with candidates standing on aLiberal Unionist ticket. The creation of theNational Liberals also helped increase the Unionist vote.

Within this context, their support grew, and the emergence of theLabour Party as a threat to the middle-classes resulted in the Scottish Unionists gaining a majority of Scottish seats at the1924 general election, with 37 out of Scotland's 73 seats. Suffering a setback in1929, they reasserted themselves at the1931 general election during an electoral backlash against the Labour Party that resulted in the creation of theNational Government. The Scottish Unionist Party won 79% of the Scottish seats that year, 58 out of 73. In1935, they returned a reduced majority of 45 MPs.

This remained the case until Labour's landslide victory at the1945 general election. The Unionists won only 30 of the 71 seats in Scotland. At the1950 general election, a majority of Labour MPs was returned again, but the Scottish Unionist Party closed the gap by returning 32 MPs. At the subsequent Conservative election victorythe following year, an equal number of Labour and Unionist MPs were returned from Scotland, 35, withJo Grimond of theLiberal Party retaining theOrkney and Shetland seat.

With Church of Scotland membership peaking at 1,300,000 in 1955 – or over one-quarter of Scotland's population^[4] – the1955 general election brought unparalleled success as the party gained 50.1% of the vote and 36 of the 71 seats at Westminster.^[5]: 179 Often cited as the only party to achieve a majority of the Scottish vote, six of the Conservative and Unionist MPs were returned that year under the label of Liberal Unionist or National Liberal. This apparent success was the prelude to a number of events that weakened the appeal of both the Scottish Unionist Party and the Scottish Conservatives that followed.

Following electoral defeat when the Party lost six seats in Scotland at the1964 United Kingdom general election, reforms in April 1965 brought an end to the Scottish Unionist Party as an independent force.^{[5]: 180 [6]} It was renamed "Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party" that constitutionally then came under the control of the mainstream UK party. These, and further reforms in 1977, saw the Scottish Conservatives transformed into a regional unit, with its personnel, finances, and political offices under the control of the party leadership in London.

As theBritish Empire came to an end, so too did the primacy of Protestant associations, assecularism andecumenism rose. The decline of strictly Protestant associations, and the loss of its Protestant working-class base, spelled the erosion of the Unionist vote. Though many Conservatives would still identify with the Kirk, most members of the established Church of Scotland did not identify themselves as Conservatives.

With theDaily Record newspaper switching from endorsing the Unionists to the Labour Party,^[5]: 180 the Conservative Party in the 1960s was mercilessly portrayed as a party of theAnglicisedaristocracy. Combined with the new name, this helped turn previous Unionist voters to the Labour Party and the SNP, which advanced considerably at the two general elections ofFebruary andOctober 1974.

The relations between the Scottish Conservatives with the largely working-class Orange Order also became problematic because of the perceived aristocratic connection of the former, but it wasThe Troubles in Northern Ireland that created more concrete problems. On one level, there was the residual perception of a connection that many mainstream Protestant voters associated with the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland – a perception that is unfair to a large extent since the Scottish Orange Order has dealt more stringently with members associating withLoyalist paramilitaries than its Northern Irish equivalent. However, the ramifications of this perception also led to the Scottish Conservative Party downplaying and ignoring past associations, which further widened the gap with the Orange Order. Any links that lingered were ultimately broken whenPrime MinisterMargaret Thatcher signed theAnglo-Irish Agreement. This event witnessed Orange Lodges (amongst other supporters) setting up their ownScottish Unionist Party.

This chart shows the electoral results of the Scottish Unionist Party, from its first general election contested in1918, to its last in1964. Total number of seats, and vote percentage, is for Scotland only.

• George Younger, 1916–1923
• The Marquess of Linlithgow, 1924–1926
• Harriet Findlay, 1928
• John Craik-Henderson
• Viscount Stuart of Findhorn, 1950–1962
• Michael Noble, 1962–1963
• Sir John George, 1963–1965
• John Gilmour, 1965–1967

• Hopkin, J. (2006),"British Statewide Parties and Multilevel Politics"(PDF),Publius: The Journal of Federalism,36:135–152,doi:10.1093/publius/pjj008

Wikimedia Commons has media related toScottish Unionist Party.

• Official Scottish Conservative Party website
• "The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party: 'the lesser spotted Tory'?" by Dr David Seawright
• "Baldwin and Scotland: More than Englishness" by Gabrielle Ward-Smith
• Number of Scottish MPs by Party 1868 – present
• Scottish Election Results 1945–1997Archived 17 October 2012 at theWayback Machine

• Political parties established in 1912
• Defunct political parties in Scotland
• Scottish Conservatives
• Unionism in Scotland
• Political parties disestablished in 1965
• 1912 establishments in Scotland
• History of the Conservative Party (UK)
• 1965 disestablishments in Scotland

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