The Scottish Liberal Democrats () is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, part of the UK Liberal Democrats. The party holds 10 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, 6 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons and 88 of 1,226 local councillors.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats is one of the three state parties"The party is led by Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen MSP and is a state party within the Liberal Democrats", scotlibdems.org.uk, accessed 23 September 2006 () within the federal"Party Structure" , scotlibdems.org.uk Liberal Democrats, the others being the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the English Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats do not contest elections in Northern Ireland.
History
Formation and early years The Scottish Liberal Democrats were formed by the merger of the Scottish Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Scotland, as part of the merger of the Liberal Party and SDP on 3 March 1988. The Scottish Liberal Democrats were formally established on 7 March 1988.
The party campaigned for the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament as part of its wider policy of a federal United Kingdom. In the late 1980s and 1990s it and its representatives participated in the Scottish Constitutional Convention with Scottish Labour, the Scottish Greens, trades unions and churches. It also campaigned for a "Yes-Yes" vote in the 1997 devolution referendum.
1999–2007: Coalition government with Labour In the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the Scottish Liberal Democrats won 17 seats. Following this, it formed a coalition government with Scottish Labour in the Scottish Executive. The then party leader, Jim Wallace, became deputy first minister of Scotland and cabinet secretary for justice and home affairs. He also served as acting first minister on three occasions, during the illness and then later, the death of the first First Minister Donald Dewar and the following resignation of his successor Henry McLeish. This partnership was renewed in 2003 and Wallace became Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. On 23 June 2005, Nicol Stephen MSP succeeded Wallace as party leader and took over his positions in the Executive until the 2007 elections.
Prior to the partnership government being formed in 1999, the UK had only limited experience of coalition government. The Liberal Democrats’ participation attracted criticism for involving compromises to its preferred policies, although several of its manifesto pledges were adopted as government policy or legislation. These included changes to the arrangements for student contributions to higher education costs (although whether that amounted to the claimed achievement of having abolished tuition fees was hotly contested), free personal care for the elderly and (during the second coalition government) changing the system of elections for Scottish local authorities to the single transferable vote, a long-standing Liberal Democrat policy.
2007–2011: Opposition In the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, the party won one fewer seat than in the two previous Scottish elections. This was the first parliamentary election for 28 years in which the party's parliamentary strength in Scotland was reduced. This experience led to some criticism of the party's election strategy and its leader. Although it was arithmetically possible to form a majority coalition with the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Scottish Greens, the party refused to participate in coalition negotiations because of a disagreement over the SNP's policy of a referendum on Scottish independence, and sat as an opposition party in the Parliament.
On 2 July 2008, Nicol Stephen resigned as party leader, citing the "stresses and strains" of the job. Former deputy leader Michael Moore MP served as acting leader of the party until Tavish Scott MSP was elected party leader on 26 August 2008, winning 59% of the votes cast in a contest with parliamentary colleagues Ross Finnie and Mike Rumbles.
2011–2021: Electoral decline At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the party lost all its mainland constituencies, retaining only the two constituencies of Orkney and of Shetland; it also secured three List MSPs. This was, at the time, by far the party's worst electoral performance since the re-establishment of a Scottish Parliament in 1999. The disastrous results were blamed on a backlash to the Lib Dems' coalition with the Conservative Party. Scott resigned as party leader on 7 May; Willie Rennie won the resulting election to replace Scott ten days later.
At the 2014 European Parliament election, the party lost its only MEP, leaving it with no representation in Europe for the first time since 1994. The party lost 10 of its 11 MPs at the 2015 general election with only Alistair Carmichael narrowly retaining his seat, holding Orkney and Shetland with a 3.6% majority.
At the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, the party again had five MSPs elected but was pushed into 5th place by the Scottish Greens. While it regained the two constituency seats of Edinburgh Western and North East Fife from the SNP, its vote share fell slightly overall.
At the 2017 general election, the party retained Orkney and Shetland with an increased majority, as well as regaining three seats lost to the SNP in 2015 – Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, East Dunbartonshire and Edinburgh West. The Scottish Liberal Democrats lost out on the North East Fife constituency to Stephen Gethins of the SNP by just two votes in the most marginal result in the UK at the general election that year.
In the 2019 European Parliament election, the Liberal Democrats re-gained a Member of European Parliament: Sheila Ritchie represented the Scotland Region until the United Kingdom left the European Union in early 2020.
In the 2019 general election, UK Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson lost East Dunbartonshire to Amy Callaghan of the SNP by 150 votes, and was forced to stand down as leader; but the Liberal Democrats successfully regained North East Fife and retained four seats in Scotland. The Scottish Lib Dems replaced Scottish Labour as the third-largest party in Scotland in terms of seats at the 2019 general election, in a historic landslide defeat for Labour nationwide.
In the 2021 Scottish Parliament election electors returned only 4 Lib Dem MSPs: the party held on to their 4 constituency seats while losing their single regional seat in North East Scotland. The party's vote-share also declined further, reaching a new low in both constituency and list-vote share at a Scottish Parliamentary election, and 50 candidates lost deposits in the 73 constituencies contested. This resulted in the party dropping below the five-seat threshold required for recognition as a parliamentary party in the Scottish Parliament, and consequently losing certain parliamentary rights such as a guaranteed question at First Minister's Questions. Following the election, Rennie resigned as leader, and was replaced by Alex Cole-Hamilton in August 2021 after he stood to run unopposed.
2022–present: Rebuilding After winning 87 council seats in the 2022 Scottish local elections, an increase from 67 in 2017, party leader Alex Cole-Hamilton announced a target of 150 councillors by 2027.
At the 2024 general election, the party won the most number of seats since 2010. They held the successors to their four seats which had their boundaries redrawn and gained an additional two by taking Mid Dunbartonshire and Ross, Skye and Lochaber from the SNP. Due to the reduction of House of Common seats in the 2023 Boundary Review, many news organisations would report the results as two holds and four gains.
In the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, the party campaigned on improving healthcare and education. They held three of their four constiuency seats and gained a further four. Additionally they won three new regional seats via the Additional Member System. The 10 seats they won is the highest amount since 2007.
Leadership Leaders No. Image NameConstituency Term start Term endTenureFirst Minister1 Malcolm BruceMP for Gordon 3 March 1988 18 April 1992Office did not exist2 Jim Wallace MP for Orkney and Shetland (1983–2001)MSP for Orkney (1999–2007) 18 April 1992 23 June 2005Donald Dewar1999–2000Himself 2000Henry McLeish2000–2001Himself 2001Jack McConnell2001–20073 Nicol StephenMSP for Aberdeen South 23 June 2005 2 July 2008Alex Salmond2007–2014Acting Michael MooreMP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk 2 July 2008 26 August 20084 Tavish ScottMSP for Shetland 26 August 2008 7 May 20115 Willie RennieMSP for North East Fife 17 May 2011 20 July 2021Nicola Sturgeon2014–2023Acting Alistair Carmichael MP for Orkney and Shetland 20 July 2021 20 August 20216 Alex Cole-HamiltonMSP for Edinburgh Western 20 August 2021 IncumbentHumza Yousaf2023–2024John Swinney2024–present
Deputy Leaders
No. Image NameConstituency Term start Term endTenureConcurrent spokesperson or Government roleLeader1 Michael MooreMP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk 2 November 2002 20 September 2010 Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Spokesperson (2001–2005, 2006–2007) Defence Spokesperson (2005–2006) International Development Spokesperson (2007–2010) Northern Ireland and Scotland Spokesperson (2008) Secretary of State for Scotland (2010–2013)Jim WallaceNicol Stephen Himself Tavish Scott2 Jo SwinsonMP for East Dunbartonshire 20 September 2010 23 September 2012 Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs (2012–2015) Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities (2012–2015)Willie Rennie3 Alistair CarmichaelMP for Orkney and Shetland 23 September 2012 3 December 2021 Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats (2010–2013, 2017–2020) Deputy Government Chief Whip/Comptroller of the Household (2010–2013) Secretary of State for Scotland (2013–2015) Home Affairs Spokesperson (2015–2016, 2020–2024) Northern Ireland Spokesperson (2017–2024) Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Spokesperson (2019) Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Exiting the European Union spokesperson (2020)Himself Alex Cole-Hamilton4 Wendy ChamberlainMP for North East Fife 3 December 2021 Incumbent Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats (2020–present) Scotland and Wales Spokesperson (2020–2022) Work and Pensions Spokesperson (2020–2024)
Current party leadership, office bearers and committee members Current party officials include: Leader: Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP Deputy Leader: Wendy Chamberlain MP Convener: Jenni Lang Treasurer: Mike Gray President: Caron Lindsay Vice-Convener, Policy: Neil Casey Vice-Convener, Conference: Fraser Graham Vice-Convener, Campaigns & Candidates: Charles Dundas
Structure In keeping with its basis as a federation of organisations, the Scottish party also consists of a number of local parties (which mostly follow the boundaries of the Scottish Council Areas), which are each distinct accounting units under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Local parties are predominantly responsible for the party's political campaigning and for selecting candidates for parliamentary and local authority elections.
There are also eight regional parties (based on the boundaries of the eight Scottish Parliament electoral regions).
Administration The party's headquarters are located in Edinburgh. The conference is the highest decision-making body of the party on both policy and strategic issues. The day-to-day organisation of the party is the responsibility of the party's Executive Committee, which is chaired by the Convener of the party and includes the Leader, the Deputy Leader and the President of the party, as well as the party Treasurer and the three Vice-Conveners. All party members vote every two years in internal elections to elect people to all the below positions, except Leader & Depute Leader.
Conferences