Politics of Scotland

The party with the largest number of seats in the Scottish Parliament is the Scottish National Party (SNP), which campaigns for Scottish independence. The current first minister of Scotland is SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, who has led a government since November 2014. The previous first minister, Alex Salmond, led the SNP to an overall majority victory in the May 2011 general election, which was then lost in 2016 and now forms a minority government. Other parties represented in the parliament are the Labour Party, Conservative Party which form the official opposition, Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Green Party. The next Scottish Parliament election is due to be held in May 2021.

Under devolution, Scotland is represented by 59 MPs in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom elected from territory-based Scottish constituencies, out of a total of 650 MPs in the House of Commons. A Secretary of State for Scotland, who prior to devolution headed the system of government in Scotland, sits in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and is responsible for the limited number of powers the office retains since devolution, as well as relations with other Whitehall Ministers who have power over reserved matters. The Scottish Parliament can refer devolved matters back to Westminster to be considered as part of United Kingdom-wide legislation by passing a Legislative Consent Motion — usually referred to as a Sewel Motion. This has been done on a number of occasions where it has been seen as either more efficient, or more politically expedient to have the legislation considered by Westminster. The Scotland Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for reserved Scottish affairs. The current Secretary of State for Scotland is Alister Jack MP, a Conservative. Until 1999, Scottish peers were entitled to sit in the House of Lords.

The main political debate in Scotland tends to revolve around attitudes to the constitutional question. Under the pressure of growing support for Scottish independence, a policy of devolution had been advocated by all three GB-wide parties to some degree during their history (although Labour and the Conservatives have also at times opposed it). This question dominated the Scottish political scene in the latter half of the twentieth century with Labour leader John Smith describing the revival of a Scottish parliament as the "settled will of the Scottish people".[1] Now that devolution has occurred, the main argument about Scotland's constitutional status is over whether the Scottish Parliament should accrue additional powers (for example over fiscal policy), or seek to obtain full independence. Ultimately the long term question is: should the Scottish parliament continue to be a subsidiary assembly created and potentially abolished by the constitutionally dominant and sovereign parliament of the United Kingdom (as in devolution) or should it have an independent existence as of right, with full sovereign powers (either through independence, a federal United Kingdom or a confederal arrangement)? To clarify these issues, the SNP-led Scottish Government published Choosing Scotland's Future, a consultation document directed to the electorate under the National Conversation exercise.

The programmes of legislation enacted by the Scottish Parliament have seen the divergence in the provision of public services compared to the rest of the United Kingdom.[2] While the costs of a university education, and care services for the elderly are free at point of use in Scotland, fees are paid in the rest of the UK. Scotland was the first country in the UK to ban smoking in public places, with the ban effective from 26 March 2006. Also, on 19 October 2017, the Scottish government announced that smacking children as punishment was to be banned in Scotland, the first nation of the UK to do so.[3]

The debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament Building.

Donald Dewar became the first first minister of Scotland and first leader of a Scottish Government in 1999 since the Treaty of Union in 1707

The election of the Labour government in 1997 was followed by a referendum in Scotland on establishing a devolved Scottish Parliament. 74.3% of voters agreed with the establishment of the parliament and 63.5% agreed it should have tax-varying powers, which meant that it could adjust income taxes by up to 3%.[4][5]

The Parliament was then created by the Scotland Act 1998 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster Parliament). This Act sets out the subjects still dealt with at Westminster, referred to as reserved matters, including Defence, International Relations, Fiscal and Economic Policy, Drugs Law and Broadcasting. Anything not mentioned as a specific reserved matter is automatically devolved to Scotland, including health, education, local government, Scots law and all other issues. This is one of the key differences between the successful Scotland Act 1998 and the failed Scotland Act 1978.

The Parliament is elected by a mixture of the first past the post and proportional representation electoral systems, namely, the additional members system. Thus the Parliament is unlike the Westminster Parliament, which is elected solely by the first past the post method. The Scottish Parliament is elected every four years and has 129 members, referred to as members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). Of the 129 MSPs, 73 are elected to represent first past the post constituencies, whilst the remaining 56 are elected by the additional member system.

The proportional representation system has resulted in the election of a number of candidates from parties that would not have been expected to get representation through the first past the post system.

A devolved government called the Scottish Executive (renamed Scottish Government in 2007) was established along with the Scottish Parliament in 1999, with the first minister of Scotland at its head. The secretariat of the Executive is part of the UK Civil Service and the head of the Executive, the permanent secretary (presently Leslie Evans), is the equivalent of the permanent secretary of a Whitehall department.

Local government in Scotland is organised into 32 unitary authorities. Each local authority is governed by a council consisting of elected councillors, who are elected every four years by registered voters in each of the council areas.

Scottish councils co-operate through, and are represented collectively by, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

There are currently 1,227 councillors in total, each paid a part-time salary for the undertaking of their duties. Each authority elects a Convener or Provost to chair meetings of the authority's council and act as a figurehead for the area. The four main cities of Scotland, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee have a Lord Provost who is also, ex officio, Lord Lieutenant for that city.

There are in total 32 councils, the largest being the Glasgow City Council with more than 600,000 inhabitants, the smallest, Orkney Islands Council, with fewer than 20,000 people. See Subdivisions of Scotland for a list of the council areas.

Until 1832 Scottish politics remained very much in the control of landowners in the country, and of small cliques of merchants in the burghs. Agitation against this position through the Friends of the People Society in the 1790s met with Lord Braxfield's explicit repression on behalf of the landed interests.[7] The Scottish Reform Act 1832 rearranged the constituencies and increased the electorate from under 5,000 to 65,000.[8] The Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1868 extended the electorate to 232,000 but with "residential qualifications peculiar to Scotland".[9] However, by 1885 around 50% of the male population had the vote, the secret ballot had become established, and the modern political era had started.

From 1885 to 1918 the Liberal Party almost totally dominated Scottish politics. Only in the general election of 1955 and the general election of 1931 did the Unionist Party, together with their National Liberal and Liberal Unionist allies, win a majority of votes.

After the coupon election of 1918, 1922 saw the emergence of the Labour Party as a major force. Red Clydeside elected a number of Labour MPs. A communist was elected for Motherwell in 1924, but in essence the 1920s saw a 3-way fight between Labour, the Liberals and the Unionists. The National Party of Scotland first contested a seat in 1929. It merged with the centre-right Scottish Party in 1934 to form the Scottish National Party, but the SNP remained a peripheral force until the watershed Hamilton by-election of 1967.

The Communists won West Fife in 1935 and again in 1945 (Willie Gallacher) and several Glasgow Labour MPs joined the Independent Labour Party in the 1930s, often heavily defeating the official Labour candidates.

The National Government won the vast majority of Scottish seats in 1931 and 1935: the Liberal Party, banished to the Highlands and Islands, no longer functioned as a significant force in central Scotland.

In 1945, the SNP saw its first MP (Robert McIntyre) elected at the Motherwell by-election, but had little success during the following decade. The ILP members rejoined the Labour Party, and Scotland now had in effect a two-party system.

• 1950: The Liberals won two seats - Jo Grimond winning Orkney and Shetland.
• 1951: Labour and the Unionists won 35 seats each, the Liberals losing one seat.
• 1955: The Unionists won a majority of both seats and votes. The SNP came second in Perth and Kinross.
• 1959: In contrast to England, Scotland swung to Labour, which scored four gains at the expense of the Unionists. This marked the start of a trend which in less than 40 years saw the Unionists' Scottish representation at Westminster reduced to zero. This was the last occasion when the Unionists won in Scotland: their merger with the Conservative Party of England and Wales in 1965, to become the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, began a long, steady decline in their support.
• 1964: There was a substantial swing to Labour, giving them 44 of Scotland's 71 seats. The Liberals won four seats, all in the Highlands.
• 1965: David Steel won the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles by-election for the Liberals.
• 1966: Labour gained 2 more seats and the Liberals made a net gain of 1. The SNP garnered over 100,000 votes and finished second in 3 seats.
• 1967: The SNP did well in the Glasgow Pollok by-election, but this allowed the Conservative and Unionist candidate to win. However, in the subsequent Hamilton by-election Winnie Ewing won a sensational victory.
• 1968: The SNP made substantial gains in local elections.
• 1970: The SNP performed poorly in local elections and in the Ayrshire South by-election. The general election saw a small swing to the Conservatives & Unionists, but Labour won a majority of seats in Scotland. The SNP made little progress in central Scotland, but took votes from the Liberals in the Highlands and in north east Scotland, and won the Western Isles.
• 1971-1973: The SNP did well in by-elections, Margo MacDonald winning Glasgow Govan.
• 1974: In the two general elections of 1974 (in February and October) the SNP won 7 and then 11 seats, their share of the vote rising from 11% in 1970 to 22% and then 30%. With the Labour Party winning the October election by a narrow margin, the SNP appeared in a strong position.
• 1974-1979: Devolution dominated this period: the Labour government attempted to steer through devolution legislation, based on the recommendations of the Kilbrandon Commission, against strong opposition, not least from its own backbenchers. Finally a referendum, whilst producing a small majority in favour of an elected Scottish Assembly, failed to achieve a turnout of 40% of the total electorate, a condition set in the legislation. In the 1979 general election the SNP fared poorly, falling to 17% of the vote and 2 seats. Labour did well in Scotland, but in the United Kingdom as a whole Margaret Thatcher led the Conservatives to a decisive victory.
• 1979-1983: The SNP suffered severe splits as the result of the 1979 drop in support. Labour also was riven by internal strife as the Social Democratic Party split away. Despite this, the 1983 election still saw Labour remain the majority party in Scotland, with a smaller swing to the Conservatives than in England. The SNP's vote declined further, to 12%, although it won two seats.
• 1987: The Labour Party did well in the 1987 election, mainly at the expense of the Conservatives & Unionists, who were reduced to their smallest number of Scottish seats since before World War I. The SNP made a small but significant advance.
• 1988: Jim Sillars won the Glasgow Govan by-election for the SNP.
• 1992: This election proved a disappointment for Labour and the SNP in Scotland. The SNP went from 14% to 21% of the vote but won only 3 seats. The Conservative and Unionist vote did not collapse, as had been widely predicted, leading to claims that their resolutely anti-devolution stance had paid dividends.
• 1997: In common with England, there was a Labour landslide in Scotland. The SNP doubled their number of MPs to 6, but the Conservatives & Unionists failed to win a single seat. Unlike 1979, Scottish voters delivered a decisive "Yes" vote in the referendum on establishing a Scottish Parliament.
• 1999: The Scottish Parliament was established. A coalition of Labour and Liberal Democrats led by Donald Dewar took power.
• 2007: The SNP became Scotland's largest party in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election and formed a minority government.
• 2008: John Mason won the Glasgow East by-election for the SNP.
• 2008: Lindsay Roy won the Glenrothes by-election for Labour with an increased share of the vote and a 6,737 majority over the SNP.
• 2009: Willie Bain won the Glasgow North East by-election for Labour with 59.4% of the vote and an 8,111 majority over the SNP.
• 2010: 2010 United Kingdom general election: Labour won 41 out of 59 Scottish seats including Glasgow East from the SNP and received over 1 million votes across Scotland, despite losing 91 seats across Britain as a whole.
• 2011: The SNP become the first party to win an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament.
• 2015: The SNP won 56 out of 59 Scottish seats, winning 50% of the popular vote. Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats won 1 seat each.
• 2017: In the June snap Westminster general election, the SNP won 35 out of the 59 Scottish seats, the Conservatives won 13, Labour won 7 and the Liberal Democrats won 4 seats.

The current party forming the Scottish Government is the Scottish National Party (SNP), which won 63 of 129 seats available in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. The SNP was formed in 1934 with the aim of achieving Scottish independence. They are broadly centre-left and are in the European social-democratic mould. They are the largest party in the Scottish Parliament and have formed the Scottish Government since the 2007 Scottish Parliament election.

In the course of the twentieth century, Scottish Labour rose to prominence as Scotland's main political force. The party was established to represent the interests of workers and trade unionists. From 1999 to 2007, they operated as the senior partners in a coalition Scottish Executive. They lost power in 2007 when the SNP won a plurality of seats and entered a period of dramatic decline[10], losing all but one of their seats in the 2015 UK election and falling to third place in the 2016 Scottish election. The 2017 UK election produced a mixed result for the party as it gained six seat and increased its vote by 2.8% but the party came in third behind the SNP and Scottish Conservatives.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats were the junior partners in the 1999 to 2007 coalition Scottish Executive. The party has lost much of its electoral presence in Scotland since the UK Liberal Democrats entered into a coalition government with the UK Conservative Party in 2010. In the 2015 UK election they were reduced from 12 seats to one seat, and since the 2016 Scottish Parliament election they have had the fifth highest number of MSPs (five), unchanged on 2011.

The Unionist Party was the only party ever to have achieved an outright majority of Scottish votes at any general election, in 1951 (they only won a majority if the votes if their National Liberal and Liberal Unionist allies are included). The Unionist Party was allied with the UK Conservative Party until 1965, when the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party was formed. The Conservatives then entered a long-term decline in Scotland, culminating in their failure to win any Scottish seats in the 1997 UK election. At the four subsequent UK elections (2001, 2005, 2010 and 2015) the Conservatives won only one Scottish seat. The party enjoyed a revival of fortunes in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, winning 31 seats and finishing in second place. The Conservatives are a centre-right party.

The Scottish Green Party have won regional additional member seats in every Scottish Parliament election, as a result of the proportional representation electoral system. They won one MSP in 1999, increased their total to seven at the 2003 election but saw this drop back to 2 at the 2007 election. They retained two seats at the 2011 election, then increased this total to six in the 2016 election. The Greens support Scottish independence.

• Elections in Scotland
• Electoral systems in Scotland
• Politics of Aberdeen
• Politics of Dundee
• Politics of Edinburgh
• Politics of Glasgow
• Politics of the Highland council area
• Royal Commission on the Constitution (United Kingdom)
• Scottish media
• Scottish national identity

• Text of the Scotland Act 1998 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.
• Holyrood magazine a magazine covering the Scottish Parliament and Scottish politics
• The Centre on Constitutional Change , a research programme funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
• Knox, William. Labour and Nationalism: Working-Class Politics in Scotland, 1945-1990s. Industrial nation.