| Formation | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Focus | Scottish prosperity |
Key people | Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, Richard Arkless, Tony Banks,Councillor Niall John McLean, Graeme McCormick, Ian McDougall, Gillian O'Neill, Rob Aberdein, Jil Murphy, Donald Maclean, Kenny Anderson, Michelle Rodger, Michelle Thomson, David Cairns, Sandy Adam |
| Website | businessforscotland |
Business for Scotland is a business network and business and economic policy think tank consisting of and representing business people who support Scottish independence. [1]
Business for Scotland was founded by six Scottish business owners and directors, and generated over 250 members by word-of-mouth prior to the launch of its website. The organisation's membership had risen to 350 by the time of its official launch in May 2013, where it was publicly backed by Falklands War veteran and Scottish entrepreneur, Tony Banks. [2] [3] Business for Scotland membership at the time of the referendum was approximately 3,000.
Tony Banks (Balhousie Care Group), [4] Graeme McCormick (Conveyancing Direct), Ian McDougall (McDougall Johnstone/ The Glasgow Distillery), [4] Gillian O'Neill (29 Studios), Rob Aberdein (Walker Morris), Jil Murphy (Thin Red Line/ Head of BfS Edinburgh), Donald Maclean (Business Cost Consultants), Kenny Anderson (Anderson Construction), David Cairns (PrismTech/ Head of BfS Perth), Sandy Adam (Springfield Properties), Brian Souter (Souter Investments). Jim Mather, who was a member of the Scottish Parliament for the Scottish National Party (SNP) between 2003 and 2011, and served as Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism under the 2007-11 SNP government, was a director at the organisation. [5] [6] Michelle Rodger died in August 2021 [7] having been Head of BfS Glasgow.
Business for Scotland Ltd registered with the Electoral Commission as a "permitted participant" on the Yes side in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. [8] It spent £143,027 campaigning at the independence referendum [9] making it the largest spender of all the registered participant groups. After the referendum it was revealed that Business for Scotland received a £100,000 donation from Stagecoach founder Brain Souter.
The Founder and Chief Executive of the organisation, and registered responsible person with the electoral commission was Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp. [10] The organisation was chaired during the referendum by Tony Banks.
Pro-Unionist blogger Kevin Hague [4] put a complaint in to the Electoral Commission to consider whether the SNP and Business for Scotland had worked together during the Scottish referendum. [11] The Electoral Commission "found no evidence during its assessment that the SNP and BFS worked together" and consequently stated there was no need to open a full investigation into the allegations. [12] This was reported in the Herald that the Electoral Commission gave the accusations extremely short shrift. [13]
In 2017 a pro-union Scottish Business UK group was set up by Scottish businesses to argue against independence in opposition to Business for Scotland. [14]
By March 2014, membership of the organisation was claimed to be in excess of 1300. [15] As of July 2017 the membership of the organisation was claimed to be 4,000. [16] [17]
Business for Scotland, SC430989, was first registered on 23 August 2012 by a sole director named as Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp. It is registered as a private, limited by guarantee, company, with no shareholdings.
The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence or secession from the United Kingdom and for Scotland's membership of the European Union, with a platform based on civic nationalism. The SNP is the largest political party in Scotland, where it has the most seats in the Scottish Parliament and 45 out of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons at Westminster, and it is the third-largest political party by membership in the United Kingdom, behind the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. The current Scottish National Party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has served as First Minister of Scotland since 20 November 2014, though she announced her forthcoming resignation from these roles in a press conference on 15 February 2023.
The Scottish Greens are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the 2022 local elections, the party sits on 13 of the 32 Scottish local councils, with a total of 35 councillors. They hold two ministerial posts in the third Sturgeon government following a power-sharing agreement with the SNP in August 2021, marking the first time Green party politicians will be in government in the UK.
James Sillars is a Scottish politician and campaigner for Scottish independence. Sillars served as a Labour Party MP for South Ayrshire from 1970 to 1976. He founded and led the pro-Scottish Home Rule Scottish Labour Party in 1976, continuing as MP for South Ayrshire until he lost the seat in 1979.
In Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is a left social democratic political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. The SNP has controlled Scotland's devolved legislature since the 2007 election as a minority government, and were a majority government from the 2011 election and have been a minority government, since the 2016 election. Its current leader, Nicola Sturgeon, is the First Minister of Scotland.
The Confederation of British Industry(CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 140 trade associations within the confederation, whose separate and individual memberships the CBI claims to also speak for. Trade Association member companies, are not directly consulted or involved in CBI's policy formulation. The National Farmers' Union with its 55,000 members is the largest component of the 188,500 non-members the CBI claims to speak for. The Country Land and Business association brings another 30,000 non-members, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed 20,000 non-members, the Freight Transport Association 13,000, the Federation of Master Builders 9,500, the Road Haulage Association 8,100 and the National Federation of Builders 1,400.
Sir Brian Souter is a Scottish businessman. With his sister, Dame Ann Gloag, he founded the Stagecoach Group of bus and rail operators. He also founded the bus and coach operator Megabus, the train operating company South West Trains, his investments company Souter Holdings Ltd, and the Souter Charitable Trust.
Scottish Labour is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak of holding 56 of the 129 seats at the first Scottish parliament election in 1999, the Party has lost seats at each Holyrood election, returning 22 MSPs at the 2021 election. The party currently holds one of 59 Scottish seats in the UK House of Commons, with Ian Murray having represented Edinburgh South continuously since 2010.
Solidarity – Scotland's Socialist Movement was a political party in Scotland. The party launched on 3 September 2006, founded by two former Scottish Socialist Party MSPs, Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne, in the aftermath of Sheridan's libel action.
In Scotland, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is a left-wing political party. The party was formed in 1998 from an alliance of left-wing organisations in Scotland. In 1999, it saw its first MSP returned to Holyrood, with five more MSPs elected in 2003. It lost all MSPs in the 2007 elections and has lacked representation in the Scottish Parliament ever since.
A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side won with 2,001,926 (55.3%) voting against independence and 1,617,989 (44.7%) voting in favour. The turnout of 84.6% was the highest recorded for an election or referendum in the United Kingdom since the January 1910 general election, which was held before the introduction of universal suffrage.
Yes Scotland was the organisation representing the parties, organisations, and individuals campaigning for a Yes vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. It was launched on 25 May 2012 and dissolved in late 2014 after Scotland voted against independence.
Better Together was the principal campaign for a No vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, advocating Scotland continuing to be part of the United Kingdom. The organisation was formed in June 2012, operating until winning the vote on the referendum's polling day on 18 September 2014 with 2,001,926 (55.3%) voting against independence and 1,617,989 (44.7%) voting in favour. In June 2014, the campaign adopted a No Thanks branding, in relation to the referendum question.
Labour for Independence was a political organisation for Scottish Labour supporters that were in favour of Scottish independence. It claimed to have 2,000 members across Scotland in June 2014. The organisation had been described as an "SNP front" and, following the September 2014 independence referendum, its founder Allan Grogan joined the Scottish Socialist Party.
Natalie McGarry is a Scottish former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow East from 2015 to 2017. She was elected as a Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate in the 2015 general election but resigned the SNP whip after six months and sat as an independent until the end of the parliamentary session in May 2017.
A general election was held in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2015 and all 59 seats in Scotland were contested under the first-past-the-post, single-member district electoral system. Unlike the 2010 general election, where no seats changed party, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won all but three seats in Scotland in an unprecedented landslide victory, gaining a total of 56 seats and taking the largest share of the Scottish vote in sixty years, at approximately 50 per cent. The Labour Party suffered its worst ever election defeat in Scotland, losing 40 of the 41 seats it was defending, including the seats of Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy and the then Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander. The Liberal Democrats lost ten of the eleven seats they were defending, with the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and former leader Charles Kennedy losing their seats. The election also saw the worst performance by the Scottish Conservative Party, which received its lowest share of the vote since its creation in 1965, although it retained the one seat that it previously held. In all, 50 of the 59 seats changed party, 49 of them being won by first-time MPs.
Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. On 13 April 2016 it was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leaving the European Union in the Referendum.
A second referendum on independence from the United Kingdom (UK) has been proposed by the Scottish Government. An independence referendum was first held on 18 September 2014, with 55% voting "No" to independence. The Scottish Government stated in its white paper for independence that voting Yes was a "once in a generation opportunity to follow a different path, and choose a new and better direction for our nation". Following the "No" vote, the cross party Smith Commission proposed areas that could be devolved to the Scottish Parliament; this led to the passing of the Scotland Act 2016, formalising some of the new devolved policy areas in time for the 2016 Scottish Parliament election campaign.
David Melvyn Linden is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow East since 2017. He served as the SNP Spokesperson for Work and Pensions from 2021 to 2022 and the Spokesperson for Housing, Communities and Local Government in the House of Commons from 2020 to 2021.
