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The 2021 Scottish Liberal Democrats leadership election was triggered on 12 July 2021 after incumbent leader Willie Rennie announced his intention to step down as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats following the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
On 27 July, Edinburgh Western MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton announced his intention to run for leader. He stated that he wanted to offer an "alternative kind of thinking" to what he described as "the Scottish nationalism of the SNP and the British nationalism of Boris Johnson's Brexiteers". [1]
Throughout the election, Deputy Leader (MP for Orkney and Shetland) served as Interim Leader.
Only sitting MSPs may seek nominations to become leader, with Cole-Hamilton the only one to announce their candidacy. The party's executive stated its aim to conduct the election before Holyrood returns from its summer recess. [2]
Nominations for the election opened on 20 July and closed on 20 August. [3]
As only Cole-Hamilton announced his candidacy for the leadership, [4] he was declared the leader of the party on 20 August. [5] [6]
James Robert Wallace, Baron Wallace of Tankerness, is a Scottish politician serving as a Liberal Democrat life peer in the British House of Lords since 2007 and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 2021 to 2022. He served as the Deputy First Minister of Scotland from 1999 to 2005, and during that time he served twice as acting First Minister, in 2000, in the aftermath of Donald Dewar's death and in 2001, following Henry McLeish's resignation. He was formerly Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 1992 to 2005 and Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 2013 to 2016.
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The Scottish Liberal Democrats is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, part of UK Liberal Democrats. The party holds 4 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 6 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons.
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