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.
Early years (1934–1960)
The party was founded on 7 April 1934 as the result of a merger between the National Party of Scotland (NPS) and the Scottish Party.David Ross: History of Scotland, Geddes & Grosset 2002, p 31 Sir Alexander MacEwen became the new party's first leader. The merger was the brainchild of leading NPS figure John MacCormick, who desired unity for the nationalist movement in Scotland, and, upon learning of the Scottish Party's emergence, moved to secure it.
Initially, the SNP did not support all-out independence for Scotland, but rather the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly within the United Kingdom. This became the party's initial position on the constitutional status of Scotland as a result of a compromise between the NPS, who did support independence, and the Scottish Party, who were devolutionists. John MacCormick wanted a merger between the two parties and knew that it would only be through the support of devolution rather than independence that the Scottish Party would be persuaded to merge. However, the SNP quickly reverted to the NPS stance of supporting full independence for Scotland.
Professor Douglas Young was the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1942 to 1945. Young fought for the Scottish people to refuse conscription and his activities were popularly vilified as undermining the British war effort against the Nazis. Young was imprisoned for refusing to be conscripted.
John MacCormick left the party in 1942, owing to his failure to change the party's policy from supporting all out independence to Home Rule at that year's SNP conference in Glasgow. McCormick went on to form the Scottish Covenant Association, a non-partisan political organisation campaigning for the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly. This Covenant in itself proved politically challenging for the SNP, as it stole their nationalist platform. It also deprived the party of many members, who left with MacCormick.
The Covenant managed to get over 2 million signatures to a petition demanding Home Rule for Scotland in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and secured support from across the parties, but it eventually faded as a political force.
The SNP's early years were characterised by a lack of electoral progress and it wasn't until 1945 that the SNP's first member was elected to the UK parliament at Westminster. The party's first MP was Robert McIntyre who won a by-election for Motherwell under unusual wartime conditions, but he lost the seat in the general election later that year.
McIntyre's brief spell did not particularly galvanise the SNP. The 1950s were characterised by low levels of support, and this made it difficult for the party to advance. Indeed, in most general elections they were unable to put up more than a handful of candidates. The party's former president, Roland Muirhead, devoted much of his time to the Scottish National Congress, a direct action organisation which competed for support with the SNP.Peter Lynch, SNP: The History of the Scottish National Party, pp.84–85
A split occurred in the SNP in 1955 (although not as large as that of 1942) when a grouping styled the 55 Group started an organised campaign of internal dissent. This group was formed mainly of younger SNP members frustrated at the lack of progress of the party. This split proved to be minor and involved only a few members, mainly located in the city of Edinburgh, and the new National Party of Scotland made no impact whatsoever in the long-run.
The 1960s Despite the poor record the SNP had in the 1950s, by the 1960s, they were beginning to make more impact. They won a significant vote in the 1961 Glasgow Bridgeton by-election, and William Wolfe did well at the 1962 West Lothian by-election. The party began to grow quickly in the 1960s with a rapid growth in the number of recognised branches. For example, in 1966 alone the SNP National Executive recognised 113 new branches of the party. 1967 was the year that the party signalled they could begin to make an impact electorally. The party polled very well at the Pollok by-election, winning some 28% of the votes cast in a constituency where they had never stood before.
Later that year, the SNP scored an even greater electoral success. Winnie Ewing won the Hamilton constituency in a by-election in 1967 with the help of national organizer John McAteer. Consequently, the SNP began to make a serious impact on the political scene. Ewing famously said on the night of her by-election victory, 'stop the world, Scotland wants to get on', and this spirit seemed to be embraced by many Scots. Her victory propelled the party into the popular conscience and many new members joined as a result.
A novel feature of the 1967 SNP Annual Conference was that the party leader Arthur Donaldson was challenged for the position of party convenor. His challenger was Douglas Drysdale, who was vocally critical of Donaldson's leadership. Donaldson overwhelmingly defeated Drysdale to retain his position. Several prominent individuals formed the 1320 Club, hoping to develop a wider movement in the style of the Scottish Covenant Association,Christopher Harvie, Scotland and Nationalism: Scottish Society and Politics 1707 to the Present, p.172 but they were expelled in 1968 for advocating paramilitary activity.Peter Barberis et al, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, p.409
In local elections, the SNP were beginning to show they could compete also. In the 1967 Local Council elections, the SNP secured over 200,000 votes across the country making 27 gains in the burgh elections, and 42 in the counties. They managed to take control of Stirling council where former party leader Robert McIntyre became Provost. The SNP then went onto secure the largest share of the Scottish vote of any of the parties contesting the 1968 Local Council elections, winning some 40% of the vote.
Ewing's by-election victory and this improved electoral performance in the local elections helped to provoke the then UK Labour Government to establish the Kilbrandon Commission to set up the blue-print for the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly. It also prompted Edward Heath's announcement at the Conservative Perth Conference in 1968 that if he became Prime Minister he would establish a Scottish Assembly.
Scotland's unionist politicians were becoming increasingly worried at the growth of the SNP. The Labour Party in particular had cause for alarm as Scotland provided so much of their support base, and the SNP were now picking up support in their very heartlands.
At the 1969 party conference, William Wolfe was elected SNP leader in place of Arthur Donaldson.
The 1970s
At the 1970 general election, the SNP improved their vote over 1966, but did not make a serious breakthrough. Ewing lost her Hamilton seat and the only consolation for the SNP was the capture of the Western Isles, making Donald Stewart into their only MP. Thereafter, though, the SNP entered a period of sustained growth following the pattern of the 1960s: a number of strong showings in individual by-elections.
There was a minor setback in the early 1970s when a small number of party members in Dundee left to form a Labour Party of Scotland. This new party contested the Dundee East by-election of 1973, and the number of votes they captured was more than the Labour candidate's margin of victory over the SNP candidate, Gordon Wilson. However, in the long-run, this new party folded and most of its members returned to the SNP.
They were bolstered by their capture of the Glasgow Govan seat with Margo MacDonald as their candidate from the Labour Party in a by-election in 1973. This again signalled to Labour that the SNP posed an electoral threat to them and in the February 1974 General Election they returned 7 MPs. The failure of the Labour Party to secure an overall majority prompted them to quickly return to the polls to secure such and in the October 1974 General Election the SNP performed even better than they had done earlier in the year, winning 11 MPs and managing to get over 30% of the vote across Scotland.
The main driving force behind the growth of the SNP in the 1970s was the discovery of oil in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland. The SNP ran a hugely successful It's Scotland's oil campaign, emphasising the way in which they believed the discovery of oil could benefit all of Scotland's citizens. While Scottish Labour's electoral dominance had been well-established at this point, since Labour – as the party that created the National Health Service galvanised support for its vision of the welfare state and working class solidarity across the nations of the UK; the discovery of North Sea oil offered nationalists an equally compelling vision – where oil wealth would provide Scotland an escape from the stagflation the British economy was experiencing and the social unrest it led to.
Former SNP leader William Wolfe has argued that along with this campaign, the SNP was aided by their support for the workers in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Work-in, being led by Jimmy Reid, as well as supporting the workers at the Scottish Daily Express when they attempted to run the paper themselves and other such campaigns.
1979 United Kingdom general election
The SNP continued to ride high in the opinion polls throughout the 1970s, and many members are convinced that if the Liberals, led by David Steel hadn't maintained the Labour Government of the time in power, the SNP might have made further electoral gains in the resulting general election. It did well at the local elections of 1977, making 98 net gains and leaving much of Scotland under hung councils. However 1978 saw a Labour revival at the expense of the SNP, at three by-elections (Glasgow Garscadden, Hamilton and Berwick and East Lothian) and the local elections. The general election did not come until 1979, by which time the SNP's support had dwindled.
By 1976, the Labour Government had lost the three-seat majority it won at the 1974 general election after a series of by-election defeats, making its survival dependent on SNP support. In a position of the kingmaker, the SNP named home rule for Scotland as its price. Conservative opposition forced progress of the Scottish bill to a crawl, nevertheless, a bill to hold a referendum on establishing a devolved legislative assembly for Scotland was passed in 1978. However, Labour MP George Cunningham inserted an amendment requiring that the proposal be approved by 40% of all registered voters in order to take effect. In practice this doomed the home rule cause as while the proposed Scottish Assembly secured a majority of 51.6% at the referendum, a turnout of 63.7% meant only 32.9% of the electorate approved the bill. As a result, the SNP withdrew its support for the Labour Government.
In 1979, the SNP Parliamentary Group voted against the Labour Government in a Vote of No Confidence, causing the dissolution of the government and subsequent election. The then Labour Prime Minister, James Callaghan famously described this decision by the SNP as that of "turkeys voting for Christmas". After the 1979 general election, the SNP had only two seats, representing a net loss of nine seats. Margaret Thatcher became the UK's Prime Minister.
UK Government interference