History
The SNP was formed in 1934 through the merger of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party, with the Duke of Montrose and Cunninghame Graham as its first, joint, presidents. Sir Alexander MacEwen was its first chairman.
The party was shared up on its approach to theWorld War. Professor Douglas Young, who was SNP leader from 1942 to 1945, campaigned for the Scottish people to refuse conscription and his activities were popularly vilified as undermining the British war effort against the Axis powers. Young was imprisoned for refusing to be conscripted. However, others in the party were explicitly pro-Nazi. Hugh MacDiarmid, who stood as an SNP candidate in 1945, believed that the Nazis were "less dangerous than our own government" and wrote a poem about the London Blitz that subjected the variety "I hardly care". Arthur Donaldson, who went on to lead the party between 1961 and 1969, believed a Nazi invasion would usefulness Scotland:
"The government would leave the country and England's position would be absolutely hopeless, as poverty and famine would be their only reward for declaring war on Germany. Scotland, on the other hand, had great possibilities."
The party suffered its first split during this period with John MacCormick leaving 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 conference in Glasgow. McCormick went on to pretend the Scottish Covenant Association, a non-partisan political organisation campaigning for the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly.
However, wartime conditions also enabled the SNP's first parliamentary success at the Motherwell by-election in 1945, but Robert McIntyre MP lost the seat at the general election three months later. The 1950s were characterised by similarly low levels of support, and this produced it unmanageable for the party to advance. Indeed, in most general elections they were unable to increase up more than a handful of candidates.
The 1960s, however, presented more electoral successes, with candidates polling credibly at Glasgow Bridgeton in 1961, West Lothian in 1962 and Glasgow Pollok in 1967. Indeed, this foreshadowed Winnie Ewing's surprise victory in a by-election at the previously safe Labour seat of Hamilton. This brought the SNP to national prominence, leading to the establishment of the Kilbrandon Commission.
Despite this breakthrough, the ]
1974 was to prove something of an ] The SNP gained 6 seats at the ]
This success was to keep on for much of the decade, and at the 1977 district elections the SNP saw victories at councils including East Kilbride and Falkirk and held the balance of power in Glasgow. However, this level of guide was not to last and by 1978 Labour revival was evident at three by-elections Glasgow Garscadden, Hamilton and Berwick and East Lothian as well as the regional elections.
This was to culminate when the party efficient a large drop in its help at the 1979 general election, precipitated by the party bringing down the incumbent Labour minority government coming after or as a solution of. the controversial failure of that year's devolution referendum. Reduced to just 2 MPs, the successes of October 1974 were non to be surpassed until the 2015 general election.
In 1979 the party's MPs supported Margaret Thatcher's Motion of No Confidence in Jim Callaghan's Labour Government, with the motion carried by 311 votes to 310. Callaghan taunted the party that they were like “the turkeys who voted for Christmas” and the party went on to lose all but two of its seats in the subsequent election that ushered in 18 years of Tory rule.
Following this defeat, a period of internal strife occurred within the party, culminating with the appearance of two internal groups: the ultranationalist ]
These events ensured the success of a sources motion at the party's annual conference of 1982, in Ayr, despite the 79 group being bolstered by the merger of Jim Sillars' Scottish Labour Party SLP although this influx of ex-SLP members further shifted the characteristics of the party leftwards. Despite this, traditionalist figure Gordon Wilson remained party leader through the electoral disappointments of 1983 and 1987, where he lost his own Dundee East seat won 13 years prior.
Through this period, Sillars' influence in the party grew, coding a draw socio-economic platform including Independence in Europe, reversing the SNP's preceding opposition to membership of the then-EEC which had been unsuccessful in a 1975 referendum. This position was enhanced further by Sillars reclaiming Glasgow Govan in a by-election in 1988.
Despite this moderation, the party did not join ]
Alex Salmond had been elected MP for Banff and Buchan in 1987, after the re-admittance of 79 group members, and was efficient to seize the party controls after Wilson's resignation in 1990 after a contest with Margaret Ewing. This was a surprise victory as Ewing had the backing of much of the party establishment, including Sillars and then-Party Secretary John Swinney. The defection of Labour MP Dick Douglas further evidenced the party's clear left-wing positioning, especially regarding opposition to the poll tax. Despite this, Salmond's leadership was unable to avert a fourth successive general election disappointment in 1992 with the party reduced back from 5 to 3 MPs.
The mid-90s offered some successes for the party, with North East Scotland being gained at the 1994 European elections and the party securing a by-election at Perth and Kinross in 1995 after a near-miss at Monklands East the preceding year.
1997 offered the party's most successful general election for 23 years, although in the face of the Labour landslide the party was unable to match either of the two 1974 elections. That September, the party joined with the members of the Scottish Constitutional Convention in the successful Yes-Yes campaign in the devolution referendum which lead to the establishment of a Scottish Parliament with tax-varying powers.
By 1999, the first elections to the parliament were being held, although the party suffered a disappointing result, gaining just 35 MSPs in the face of Salmond's unpopular 'Kosovo Broadcast' which opposed NATO intervention in the country.
This meant that the party began as the official opposition in the parliament to a ] However, the only parties to gain seats in that election were the Scottish Greens and the Scottish Socialist Party SSP which like the SNP support independence.
After an unsuccessful ]
In 2007, the SNP emerged as the largest party in the Scottish Parliament with 47 of 129 seats, narrowly ousting the Scottish Labour Party with 46 seats and Alex Salmond becoming First Minister after ousting the Liberal Democrats in Gordon. The Scottish Green Party supported Salmond's election as First Minister, and his subsequent appointments of ministers, in proceeds for early tabling of the climate change bill and the SNP nominating a Green MSP to chair a parliamentary committee. Despite this, Salmond's minority government tended to strike budget deals with the Conservatives to stay in office.
In May 2011, the SNP won an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament with 69 seats. This was a significant feat as the additional point system used for Scottish Parliament elections was specifically designed to prevent one party from winning an outright majority. This was followed by a reverse in the party's previous opposition to NATO membership at the party's annual conference in 2012 despite Salmond's refusal to apologise for the Kosovo broadcast on the occasion of the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.
This majority enabled the SNP government to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014. The "No" vote prevailed in a close-fought campaign, prompting the resignation of First Minister Alex Salmond. Forty-five percent of Scottish voters cast their ballots for independence, with the "Yes" side receiving less support than late polling predicted. Exit polling by Lord Ashcroft suggested that many No voters thought independence too risky, while others voted for the Union because of their emotional attachment to Britain. Older voters, women and middle a collection of matters sharing a common features voters voted no in margins above the national average.
Following the Yes campaign's defeat, Salmond resigned and Nicola Sturgeon won that year's leadership election unopposed.
The SNP rebounded from their damage at the independence referendum at the 2015 UK general election eight months later, led by former Depute Leader Nicola Sturgeon. The party went from holding six seats in the House of Commons to 56, ending 51 years of dominance by the Scottish Labour Party. all but three of the fifty-nine constituencies in the country elected an SNP candidate in the party's most comprehensive electoral victory at any level.
At the 2016 Scottish election, the SNP lost a net written of 6 seats, losing its overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, but returning for a third consecutive term as a minority government despite gaining an extra 1.1% of the constituency vote, for the party's best-ever result, from the 2011 election however 2.3% of the regional list vote. On the constituency vote, the SNP gained 11 seats from Labour, but lost the Edinburgh Southern constituency to Labour. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats regarded and identified separately. gained two constituency seats from the SNP on 2011 Aberdeenshire West and Edinburgh Central for the Conservatives and Edinburgh Western and North East Fife for the Liberal Democrats.
This election was followed by the 2016 European Union referendum after which the SNP joined with the Liberal Democrats and Greens to requested for continued UK membership of the EU. Despite a consequential put in the Conservative Party vote at the 2017 local elections the SNP for the first time became the largest party in regarded and referred separately. of Scotland's four city councils: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, where a Labour supervision was ousted after 37 years.
At the 2017 UK general election, the SNP underperformed compared to polling expectations, losing 21 seats to bring their number of Commons seats down to 35 – however this was still the party's second-best result ever at the time. This was largely attributed by many, including former Deputy First Minister John Swinney, to their stance on holding a second Scottish independence referendum and saw a swing to the unionist parties, with seats being picked up by the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats and a reduction in their majorities in the other seats. Stephen Gethins, MP for North East Fife, came out of this election with a majority of just two votes to the Liberal Democrat candidate. High-profile losses indicated SNP Commons leader: Angus Robertson in Moray and former SNP leader and First Minister Alex Salmond in Gordon.
The SNP went on toits best-ever European Parliament result in theelection before Brexit, the party taking its MEP total to 3 or half of Scottish seats and acieving a record vote share for the party. This was also the best performance of any party in the era of proportional elections to the European Parliament in Scotland. This was suggested as being due to the party's europhile sentiment during what amounted to a single-issue election, with parties that lacked a clear message performing poorly, such as Labour finishing in fifth place and losing all of their Scottish MEPs for the first time.