The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 62 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament,and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons. It has 453 local councillors of the 1,227 available. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom and for Scotland's membership in the European Union,with a platform based on progressive social policies and civic nationalism. Founded in 1934 with the amalgamation of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party,the party has had continuous parliamentary representation in Westminster since Winnie Ewing won the 1967 Hamilton by-election.
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.
Angus Struan Carolus Robertson is a Scottish politician serving as the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution,External Affairs and Culture since 2021. Formerly Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2016 to 2018,he has served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Edinburgh Central since 2021. Robertson previously served as a Westminster MP for Moray from 2001 to 2017,where he served from 2007 to 2017 as the Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons.
Robert Gordon Wilson was a Scottish politician and solicitor. He was the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 1979 to 1990,and was SNP Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee East from 1974 to 1987. He was Rector of the University of Dundee from 1983 to 1986.
Kenneth Donald Macintosh is a Scottish politician who served as the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament from 2016 to 2021. Elected as a member of Scottish Labour,he suspended his party membership on becoming Presiding Officer. Macintosh was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2021,representing the Eastwood constituency from 1999 to 2016,and then the West Scotland region from 2016 to 2021.
Johann MacDougall Lamont is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014. She was previously a junior Scottish Executive minister from 2004 to 2007 and Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 until her election to the leadership in 2011. In addition to her ministerial and leadership roles,she has been a campaigner on equality issues and violence against women throughout her political career.
East Renfrewshire is a constituency of the House of Commons,to the south of Glasgow,Scotland. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
John McTernan is a British political strategist and commentator. He has been a political adviser to the Labour Party.
Scottish Labour,is the part of the UK Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and unionist,it holds 22 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 37 of 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons. It is represented by 262 of the 1,227 local councillors across Scotland. The Scottish Labour party has no separate Chief Whip at Westminster.
Ian Graham Davidson is a Scottish politician who served as chair of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee from 2010 to 2015. A member of the Scottish Labour Party and Co-operative Party,he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow South West,formerly Glasgow Pollok,from 1992 to 2015.
James Anthony Kelly is a Scottish politician who has served as General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region between 2016 and 2021,having previously been MSP for Rutherglen from 2007 to 2016.
Anas Sarwar is a Scottish Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region since 2016,having been Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Central from 2010 to 2015.
The 2011 Scottish Labour Party leadership election was an internal party election to choose a new leader of the Scottish Labour Party. The election followed the announcement by Iain Gray that he would stand down as leader in the autumn of 2011 following the party's heavy defeat to the Scottish National Party in May's Scottish Parliament general election. Gray won the previous contest in September 2008.
Kezia Alexandra Ross Dugdale is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2015 to 2017. A former member of the Scottish Labour Party and Co-operative Party,she was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region from 2011 to 2019.
Events from the year 2014 in Scotland.
The 2014 Scottish Labour Party leadership election was an internal party election to choose a new leader and deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party,following the resignations of Johann Lamont as leader and Anas Sarwar as deputy. Lamont announced her decision in an interview with the Daily Record on 24 October,saying that she was stepping down effective immediately because the UK Labour Party treated the Scottish party as a "branch office of London". Lamont,who had won the 2011 leadership contest,thus becoming the first Scottish leader to have authority over Labour's Scottish MPs in the House of Commons as well as in the Scottish Parliament,was the second leader of a Scottish political party to resign in the wake of the 2014 independence referendum. Before her resignation,Alex Salmond announced his intention to relinquish the role of Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and First Minister. Sarwar announced his own resignation on 30 October,saying he felt it was right for the party to elect a new leadership team.
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,gaining a total of 56 seats. The SNP received what remains the largest number of votes gained by a single political party in a United Kingdom general election in Scotland in British history,breaking the previous record set by the Labour Party in 1964 and taking the largest share of the Scottish vote in sixty years,at approximately 50 per cent.
Kirsten Frances Oswald is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician first elected as the Member of the UK Parliament (MP) for East Renfrewshire in 2015;she was unseated at the 2017 snap election but subsequently re-elected at the 2019 election. She served as the deputy leader of the SNP parliamentary party from 2020 to 2022,as well as Chairman and Business Convener of the Scottish National Party from 2018 to 2023.
Blair McDougall is a Scottish Labour Party politician and former political adviser who has served as the Member of Parliament for East Renfrewshire since 2024. He is best known as head strategist to the Better Together campaign during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 8 June 2017;all 59 seats in Scotland were contested under the first-past-the-post electoral system.
