List of political parties in Scotland

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This article lists political parties in Scotland.

Overview[]

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is the main political party in Scotland which primarily supports Scotland becoming an independent nation. They have also supported further devolution as a progression towards independence. They are overall centre-left, and sometimes considered big-tent, advocating social democracy, nuclear disarmament and closer ties to the European Union. They were founded in 1934 and formed a permanent grouping in House of Commons in 1967. Their best election result in the 20th century was at the general 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 in 1979. Support for the party was bolstered under the leadership of Alex Salmond, who in 2011 led the SNP to their best electoral performance to date, in which they became the first party in the devolved Scottish Parliament to win a majority of seats. They form the Scottish government, and are now led by Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. They have 64 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and 45 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (MPs).

The Scottish Conservatives are the Scottish wing of the UK-wide Conservative Party. They were founded in 1965 out of the merger of the Scottish 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 the 1955 general election. However the party went into decline, being reduced from 21 Scottish seats in 1983, to 10 in 1987. The 1997 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 the 1999 election due to proportional 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 the 2017 general election when it returned 13 seats and just short of a third of the vote. Like the wider UK Conservative Party, the party is a centre-right party, which promotes conservatism and British unionism. They currently have 31 MSPs, led in the Scottish Parliament by Douglas Ross, and 6 MPs, including Ross himself.

Scottish Labour is the Scottish wing of the Great Britain-wide Labour Party. It was the most successful party in Scottish elections from 1959 to 2007. Like the wider UK Labour Party, they are centre-left and they promote British unionism.^{[citation needed]} They first overtook the Conservatives as Scotland's largest party at the 1959 general election. In 1997, the UK Labour Party under Tony Blair offered Scotland a referendum 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 by Iain Gray in the Scottish Parliament, who announced his resignation after the party's defeat at the 2011 Scottish election. Johann Lamont became leader in 2011 and resigned in 2014 after an internal dispute within the party. Subsequently, they were led by Jim Murphy, Kezia Dugdale and Richard Leonard. They currently have one MP and 22 MSPs. As of 2021 they are led by Anas Sarwar MSP.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats are the Scottish wing of the Great Britain-wide Liberal Democrats party. It is a centrist, social liberal and British unionist party. The British Liberal Democrats they are part of were formed in 1988 when the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party merged. Their leader is Alex Cole-Hamilton. Since the formation of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition at Westminster, support for the Liberal Democrats has fallen sharply, and the party won five seats at the 2011 Scottish parliamentary election. They also lost their Scottish MEP at the 2014 European elections. They also lost 10 of their 11 House of Commons seats at the 2015 general election, with Deputy Leader Alistair Carmichael the only MP managing to keep his seat. They currently have four MSPs and four MPs.

The Scottish Greens sit between the centre-left and the left-wing. The party promotes green politics, Scottish independence, equality and radical democracy. It retains close ties with the Green Party of England and Wales and the Green Party Northern Ireland, having all originated in the breakup of the UK Green 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-wide Reform UK. It is a Euroscepticism and populist party. The party gained its first elected representative in January 2021, when sitting independent MSP Michelle 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.

The Alba Party is a Scottish independence supporting party formed in February 2021 and led by former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond. Shortly after it announced its plans to run in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, two SNP MPs defected to the new party, making the Alba Party the fourth largest Scottish party at the Westminister Parliament after the SNP, Scottish Liberal Democrats and Scottish Conservatives. In the run up to the 2021 Scottish Parliament election there was a succession of SNP representatives defecting to the party. The party failed to win any seats in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election,^[3] after attracting only 1.7% of the vote.^[4]

Parties with elected representation[]

Scottish Parliament and/or House of Commons[]

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, the Alba Party have representation in both. In addition, all parties have elected representation at the local government level.

Party		Founded	Political position	Ideology	Leader		Scottish Parliament	House of Commons (Scottish seats only)	Local Government	Membership[a]
	Scottish National Party	1934	Centre-left Big tent	Scottish nationalism Scottish independence Social democracy Regionalism Pro-Europeanism		Nicola Sturgeon	64 / 129	45 / 59	399 / 1,227	119,000[5]
	Scottish Conservatives	1965	Centre-right	Conservatism Economic liberalism British unionism		Douglas Ross	31 / 129	6 / 59	263 / 1,227	Unknown
	Scottish Labour[b]	1994	Centre-left	Social democracy British unionism		Anas Sarwar	22 / 129	1 / 59	249 / 1,227	16,467[6]
	Scottish Greens	1990	Centre-left to left-wing	Green politics Scottish independence Scottish republicanism Pro-Europeanism		Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater (co-leadership)	7 / 129	0 / 59	18 / 1,227	7,500[7]
	Scottish Liberal Democrats	1988	Centre to centre-left	Liberalism Social liberalism Federalism British unionism Pro-Europeanism		Alex Cole-Hamilton	4 / 129	4 / 59	67 / 1,227	5,260[8]
	Alba	2021	N/A	Scottish independence Scottish nationalism		Alex Salmond	0 / 129	2 / 59	13 / 1,227	6,000[9]

Local government[]

There are several parties in Scotland that have elected representation only at the local government level.

Party		Founded	Ideology	Leader	Council area	Councillors
	Orkney Manifesto Group	2013	Localism, Social liberalism	Rachael King	Orkney Islands	2
	Independence for Scotland Party	2020	Scottish independence	Colette Walker	Argyll and Bute	1
	Rubbish Party	2017	Localism, Environmentalism	Sally Cogley	East Ayrshire	1
	Scotia Future	2020	Scottish independence	Charles Brodie	Renfrewshire	1
	Scottish Libertarian Party	2012	Libertarianism, Scottish independence, Cultural liberalism, Classical liberalism, Minarchism, Euroscepticism	Thomas Laird	Aberdeenshire	1
	West Dunbartonshire Community Party	2016	Socialism	Drew MacEoghainn	West Dunbartonshire	1

Council control[]

Political control may be held by minority governments (min), coalitions (co), joint leadership arrangements (j.l.) or partnership working arrangements (p.w.).^[10]

Last update 30 March 2021.^[11][12]

Council	Control		Website	Total	SNP	Con	Lab	LD	SGP	Other	Vacant	Upcoming by-elections
Aberdeen	NOC	CON+ALAB[s 1]+IND co	URL	45	19	9	9[s 1]	3		4
Aberdeenshire	NOC	CON+LD+IND co	URL	70	18	18	1	13	1	18	1	East Garioch (LD) - TBC
Angus	NOC	CON+IND+LD co	URL	28	9	8		2		9
Argyll & Bute	NOC	CON+LD+IND co[13]	URL	36	11	10		5		10
Clackmannanshire	NOC	SNP min[14]	URL	18	8	4	5			1
Dumfries & Galloway	NOC	LAB+SNP co	URL	43	10	16	9	1		7
Dundee	NOC	SNP+IND co	URL	29	14	3	8	2		2
East Ayrshire	NOC	SNP min	URL	32	14	6	9			3
East Dunbartonshire	NOC	LD+CON co[15]	URL	22	7	6	2	6		1
East Lothian	NOC	LAB min	URL	22	6	7	9
East Renfrewshire	NOC	SNP+LAB co	URL	18	5	5	4	1		3
Edinburgh	NOC	SNP+LAB co[16]	URL	63	16	17	11	6	8	5
Falkirk	NOC	SNP min[17]	URL	30	12	7	9			2
Fife	NOC	SNP+LAB j.l.[18]	URL	75	29	14	23	7		2
Glasgow	NOC	SNP min[19]	URL	85	36	7	30		7	5
Highland	NOC	IND+LD+LAB co	URL	74	18	10	3	9	1	33
Inverclyde	NOC	LAB min	URL	22	6	2	8	1		5
Midlothian	NOC	LAB min	URL	18	7	5	6
Moray	NOC	SNP min	URL	26	8	9	1			8
Na h-Eileanan Siar	IND	IND	URL	31	6	1				24
North Ayrshire	NOC	LAB min	URL	33	10	7	11			5
North Lanarkshire	NOC	LAB min	URL	77	27	8	31			11
Orkney	IND	IND	URL	21					1	20
Perth & Kinross	NOC	CON+LD+IND co	URL	40	13	18	1	5		3
Renfrewshire	NOC	SNP min	URL	43	19	8	13	1			1	Paisley Southeast (Ind) - TBC
Scottish Borders	NOC	CON+IND co	URL	34	8	15		2		9
Shetland	IND	IND	URL	22	1					21
South Ayrshire	NOC	SNP+LAB+IND p.w.	URL	28	9	12	5			2
South Lanarkshire	NOC	SNP min	URL	64	25	12	17	3		7
Stirling	NOC	SNP+LAB	URL	23	7	8	4		1	2	1	Forth and Endrick (SNP) - 6 May 2021
West Dunbartonshire	NOC	SNP+IND	URL	22	9	2	8			3
West Lothian	NOC	LAB min	URL	33	13	7	12			1

Parties with no elected representation[]

Notable registered parties[]

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.

Party		Founded	Ideology	Leader
	Abolish the Scottish Parliament Party	2020	Scottish Parliament abolition, Anti-devolution, Scottish unionism	John Mortimer
	Action for Independence	2020	Scottish independence	Dave Thompson
	All for Unity	2020	Scottish unionism, British unionism, Anti-nationalism, Big tent	George Galloway
	Animal Welfare Party	2006	Animal welfare	Vanessa Hudson
	British National Party	1982	British Fascism, White nationalism, Right-wing populism, Ethnic nationalism, Ultranationalism, Hard Euroscepticism	Adam Walker
	British Unionist Party	2015	British unionism, Scottish unionism, Social conservatism, Social democracy	John Mortimer
	Christian Party	2004	Christian right, Euroscepticism, Social conservatism, British unionism	Jeff Green
	Communist Party of Britain	1988	Communism, Marxism–Leninism	Robert Griffiths
	National Front	1967	British Fascism, Neo-fascism, British nationalism, White supremacy	Tony Martin
	Official Monster Raving Loony Party	1983	Political satire, Big tent, Populism	Alan Hope
	Reform UK	2018	Populism, Euroscepticism, Anti-lockdown	Michelle Ballantyne
	Renew Party	2017	Reformism, Pro-Europeanism	James Clarke
	Restore Scotland	2020	Scottish independence, Hard Euroscepticism	David McHutchon
	Scottish Democratic Alliance	2009	Scottish independence, Hard Euroscepticism	Robert Watson
	Scottish Liberal Party	1989	Classical liberalism, Georgism, Euroscepticism	Kayed Al-Haddad
	Scottish Socialist Party	1998	Democratic socialism, Scottish independence, Scottish republicanism	Colin Fox and Róisín McLaren[c]
	Scottish Unionist Party	1986	British unionism, Scottish unionism, Anti-Scottish Parliament	Daniel Houston
	Social Democratic Party	1990	Social democracy, Communitarianism, Social conservatism, Euroscepticism	William Clouston
	Socialist Labour Party	1996	Socialism, Fiscal localism, Republicanism, Hard Euroscepticism	Arthur Scargill
	Solidarity	2006	Socialism, Scottish independence, Scottish republicanism, Euroscepticism	Tommy Sheridan
	Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition	2010	Socialism, Trade unionism, Euroscepticism	Dave Nellist
	UK Independence Party	1993	Euroscepticism, Right-wing populism, National conservatism, Economic liberalism, British nationalism	Donald Mackay
	Women's Equality Party	2015	Feminism, Pro-Europeanism	Mandu Reid
	Workers Revolutionary Party	1973	Trotskyism, Euroscepticism, Healyism	Joshua Ogunleye

Historical and deregistered parties[]

Notable historical parties[]

Notable deregistered parties[]

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Political parties in Scotland.

• Lists of political parties
• Politics of Scotland
• Elections in Scotland

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Electoral Commission official site of the Electoral Commission