Scottish Labour | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Labour Party Leader | Keir Starmer |
| Scottish Labour Leader | Anas Sarwar |
| Scottish Labour Deputy Leader | Jackie Baillie |
| General Secretary | John Paul McHugh[1] |
| Founder | Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham Keir Hardie |
| Founded | 1888 (original form) 1994 (current form) |
| Preceded by | Scottish Labour Party (1888) |
| Headquarters | Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, Scotland |
| Student wing | Scottish Labour Students |
| Youth wing | Scottish Young Labour |
| Membership (2021) |  16,467[2] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| Colours | Red |
| House of Commons (Scottish seats) | 37 / 57 |
| Scottish Parliament[3] | 22 / 129 |
| Local government in Scotland[4][5] | 283 / 1,227 |
| Election symbol | |
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| Website | |
| scottishlabour | |
| Part of a series on |
| Socialism in the United Kingdom |
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 |
Scottish Labour,[6] 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.
Throughout the later decades of the 20th century and into the first years of the 21st, Labour dominated politics in Scotland; winning the largest share of the vote in Scotland at every UK general election from 1964 to 2010, every European Parliament election from 1984 to 2004 and in the first two elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and 2003. After this, Scottish Labour formed a coalition with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, forming a majority Scottish Executive. Until recently, especially since the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the party suffered significant decline; losing ground predominantly to the Scottish National Party, who advocate Scottish independence from the United Kingdom. Scottish Labour experienced one of their worst defeats ever at the 2015 general election. They were left with a sole seat in the House of Commons, Edinburgh South, and lost 40 of its 41 seats to the SNP. This was the first time the party had not dominated in Scotland since the Conservative Party landslide in 1959.[7] At the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, the party lost 13 of its 37 seats, becoming the third-largest party after being surpassed by the Scottish Conservatives.
At the 2017 general election, Scottish Labour improved their fortunes and gained six seats from the SNP, bringing its total seat tally to seven and winning a 27% share of the vote. This was the first time since the 1918 general election, 99 years previously, that Labour had finished in third place at any general election in Scotland. Overall, the 2017 general election marked the first time in twenty years that the Labour Party had made net gains in the UK at any election. The success was short-lived, however, and at the 2019 general election, Labour lost all new seats gained two years earlier, and again were left with Edinburgh South as their only Scottish seat in the House of Commons. Ian Murray has served as the MP for the constituency since 2010, and is currently one of Scotland's longest-serving MPs. The 2019 general election was Labour's worst result nationally in 84 years, with their lowest share of the vote recorded in Scotland since the December 1910 general election. The 2021 Scottish Parliament election saw Labour decline even further, achieving their lowest number of seats in Holyrood since devolution in 1999; with 22 MSPs returned to the Scottish Parliament. Despite this, Anas Sarwar remained as leader. The 2022 Scottish local elections resulted in Labour gaining 20 seats across Scottish local councils, with a slight increase in their share of the vote. In the 2024 general election, Scottish Labour won 37 seats, becoming the largest party in Scotland.
- ^ "Former union man takes on top job at Scottish Labour". The National. 3 April 2023.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
2021 membershipwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "MSPs". Parliament.scot. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ^ "Local Council Political Compositions". Open Council Date UK. 7 January 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
- ^ "Labour councillor suspended in Sarwar row". bbc.co.uk. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ^ Although named the Scottish Labour Party, Scottish Labour is not a political party. It is registered with the UK Electoral Commission as a description and Accounting Unit (AU) of the UK Labour Party and is therefore not a registered political party under the terms of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
- ^ "1959 General Election". History Learning Site. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.