Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; Scots: Scots National Pairty, Scottish Gaelic: Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba [ˈpʰaːrˠʃtʲi ˈn̪ˠaːʃən̪ˠt̪ə nə ˈhal̪ˠapə]) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party. The party holds 63 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 43 out of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons in Westminster. It has 453 local councillors of 1,227.
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The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom and for Scotland's membership in the European Union,[17][26][27] with a platform based on progressive social policies and civic nationalism.[3][4]
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.[28] With the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999, the SNP became the second-largest party, serving two terms as the opposition. The SNP gained power under Alex Salmond at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, forming a minority government, before going on to win the 2011 Parliament election, after which it formed Holyrood's first majority government.[29] After Scotland voted against independence in the 2014 referendum, Salmond resigned and was succeeded by Nicola Sturgeon. The SNP was reduced back to being a minority government at the 2016 election. In the 2021 election, the SNP gained one seat and entered a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens. In March 2023 Sturgeon resigned and was replaced by current leader Humza Yousaf.
The SNP is the largest political party in Scotland in terms of both seats in the Westminster and Holyrood parliaments, councillors in local government and membership. It currently has 43 members of Parliament (MPs), 64 members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and over 450 local councillors.[30] As of December 2023 the party had 69,325 members.[2]
The party does not have any members of the House of Lords on the principle that it opposes the upper house of Parliament and calls for it to be scrapped.[31] The SNP is a member of the European Free Alliance (EFA).
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Policies[edit]
Ideology[edit]
The Scottish National Party did not have a clear ideological position until the 1970s, when it sought to explicitly present itself as a social democratic party in terms of party policy and publicity.[111][112] During the period from its foundation until the 1960s, the SNP was essentially a moderate centrist party.[111] Debate within the party focused more on the SNP being distinct as an all-Scotland national movement, with it being neither of the left nor the right, but constituting a new politics that sought to put Scotland first.[112][113]
The SNP was formed through the merger of the centre-left National Party of Scotland (NPS) and the centre-right Scottish Party.[112] The SNP's founders were united over self-determination in principle, though not its exact nature, or the best strategic means to achieve self-government. From the mid-1940s onwards, SNP policy was radical and redistributionist concerning land and in favour of 'the diffusion of economic power', including the decentralisation of industries such as coal to include the involvement of local authorities and regional planning bodies to control industrial structure and development.[111] Party policies supported the economic and social policy status quo of the post-war welfare state.[111][114]
By the 1960s, the SNP was starting to become defined ideologically, with a social democratic tradition emerging as the party grew in urban, industrial Scotland, and its membership experienced an influx of social democrats from the Labour Party, the trade unions and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[115][116] The emergence of Billy Wolfe as a leading figure in the SNP also contributed to the leftwards shift. By this period, the Labour Party was also the dominant party in Scotland, in terms of electoral support and representation. Targeting Labour through emphasising left-of-centre policies and values was therefore electorally logical for the SNP, as well as tying in with the ideological preferences of many new party members.[116] In 1961, the SNP conference expressed the party's opposition to the siting of the US Polaris submarine base at the Holy Loch. This policy was followed in 1963 by a motion opposed to nuclear weapons: a policy that has remained in place ever since.[117] The 1964 policy document, SNP & You, contained a clear centre-left policy platform, including commitments to full employment, government intervention in fuel, power and transport, a state bank to guide economic development, encouragement of cooperatives and credit unions, extensive building of council houses (social housing) by central and local government, pensions adjusted to cost of living, a minimum wage and an improved national health service.[111]
The 1960s also saw the beginnings of the SNP's efforts to establish an industrial organisation and mobilise amongst trade unionists in Scotland, with the establishment of the SNP Trade Union Group, and identifying the SNP with industrial campaigns, such as the Upper-Clyde Shipbuilders Work-in and the attempt of the workers at the Scottish Daily Express to run as a co-operative.[111] For the party manifestos for the two 1974 general elections, the SNP finally self-identified as a social democratic party, and proposed a range of social democratic policies.[118][119] There was also an unsuccessful proposal at the 1975 party conference to rename the party as the Scottish National Party (Social Democrats).[120] In the UK-wide referendum on Britain's membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) in the same year as the aforementioned attempted name change, the SNP campaigned for Britain to leave the EEC.[121][122]
There were further ideological and internal struggles after 1979, with the 79 Group attempting to move the SNP further to the left, away from being what could be described a "social-democratic" party, to an expressly "socialist" party. Members of the 79 Group – including future party leader and First Minister Alex Salmond – were expelled from the party. This produced a response in the shape of the Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland from those who wanted the SNP to remain a "broad church", apart from arguments of left vs. right. The 1980s saw the SNP further define itself as a party of the political left, such as campaigning against the introduction of the poll tax in Scotland in 1989; one year before the tax was imposed on the rest of the UK.[111]
Ideological tensions inside the SNP are further complicated by arguments between the so-called SNP gradualists and SNP fundamentalists. In essence, gradualists seek to advance Scotland to independence through further devolution, in a "step-by-step" strategy. They tend to be in the moderate left grouping, though much of the 79 Group was gradualist in approach. However, this 79 Group gradualism was as much a reaction against the fundamentalists of the day, many of whom believed the SNP should not take a clear left or right position.[111]
Economy[edit]
During the 1970s the SNP campaigned widely on the political slogan It's Scotland's oil, where it was argued that the discovery of North Sea oil off the coast of Scotland, and the revenue that it created would not benefit Scotland to any significant degree while Scotland remained part of the United Kingdom.
The Sturgeon Government in 2017 adjusted income tax rates so that low earners would pay less and those earning more than £33,000 a year would pay more.[123] Previously the party had replaced the flat rate Stamp Duty with the LBTT, which uses a graduated tax rate.[124] Whilst in government, the party was also responsible for the establishment of Revenue Scotland to administer devolved taxation.
Having previously defined itself in opposition to the poll tax[111] the SNP has also championed progressive taxation at a local level. Despite pledging to introduce a local income tax[125] the Salmond Government found itself unable to replace the council tax and the party has, particularly since the ending of the council tax freeze[126] under Nicola Sturgeon's leadership, committing to increasing the graduated nature of the tax.[127] Conversely, the party has also supported capping and reducing Business Rates in an attempt to support small businesses.[128]
It has been noted that the party contains a broader spectrum of opinion regarding economic policy than most political parties in the UK due to its status as "the only viable vehicle for Scottish independence",[129] with the party's parliamentary group at Westminster in 2016 including socialists such as Tommy Sheppard and Mhairi Black, capitalists such as Stewart Hosie and former Conservative, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.[129][130]
Social justice[edit]
In 1980, when Robin Cook moved an amendment to legalise homosexual acts to the Bill which became the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980, the SNP's two MPs Gordon Wilson and Donald Stewart both voted against the amendment.[131]
In June 2000, the SNP supported the repeal of section 28, a series of laws across Britain that prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities.[132]
In government in July 2012, the SNP announced that they would legislate for civil and religious same-sex marriage in Scotland.[133] The bill was fast-tracked through the Scottish Parliament,[134] and approved with 105 MSPs in favour in February 2014.[135]
Under Sturgeon's leadership, Scotland was twice in succession named the best country in Europe for LGBT+ legal equality.[136] The party is considered very supportive of gays, lesbians and bisexuals - something that historically was not the case, as stated above.[137][138]
The SNP legislated to improve gender self-identification with the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. The policy was controversial within the SNP, with some of the party's social conservatives claiming the reforms could be open to abuse.[137][139] In 2020, the Scottish Government paused the legislation in order to find "maximum consensus" on the issue[137] and commentators described the issue as having divided the SNP like no other, with many dubbing the debate a "civil war".[140][141][142] In January 2021 a former trans officer in the SNP's LGBT wing, Teddy Hope, quit the party, describing it was one of the "core hubs of transphobia in Scotland".[143] Large numbers of LGBT activists followed suit and Sturgeon released a video message in which she said that transphobia is "not acceptable" and that she hoped they would one day rejoin the party.[144][145] In December 2022, the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was passed by a majority of 86 to 39, with 9 SNP members voting against the bill and 54 for.[146]
Particularly since Nicola Sturgeon's elevation to First Minister the party has highlighted its commitments to gender equality – with her first act being to appoint a gender balanced cabinet.[147] The SNP have also taken steps to implement all-women shortlists whilst Sturgeon has introduced a mentoring scheme[148] to encourage women's political engagement.[149]
The SNP supports multiculturalism[150] with Scotland receiving thousands of refugees from the Syrian Civil War.[151] To this end it has been claimed that refugees in Scotland are better supported than those in England.[152] More generally, the SNP seeks to increase immigration to combat a declining population[153] and calling for a separate Scottish visa even within the UK.[154] However, data for 2022 shows that Scotland houses proportionally fewer asylum seekers relative to its population than England.[155]
Local government[edit]
Councillors[edit]
The SNP had 453 councillors in local government elected from the 2022 Scottish local elections.
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