The story of the Labour Party runs deep through the modern history of Scotland from the late 19th century. Several of Labour’s most influential founding fathers came from north of the border, including Keir Hardie, the first leader. From 1945 until recent years, the party in Westminster was always supported by a phalanx of loyal Scottish MPs. From the 1960s, Labour possessed overwhelming political authority and influence in Scotland, at both local and national levels. At the end of the century, it was the only force capable of delivering a Scottish parliament, which it did successfully in 1999. As recently as the 2010 general election, that historic hegemony in UK elections was maintained, despite the party’s narrow defeat at Holyrood in 2007.
But then, since the elections to the Scottish Parliament in 2011, when a mortal enemy, the Scottish National Party, achieved the unthinkable by winning an overall majority of seats, Labour has been traumatised by one catastrophe after another. Large numbers in several of its long-established heartlands voted for independence in 2014 against Labour policy and while its membership stagnated or fell in some areas that of the SNP soared to more than 115,000 by early 2016. In the general election last year, Labour was comprehensively routed, and just escaped annihilation by winning a single parliamentary seat out of the 59 in Scotland (the SNP won 56).
Content from our partners
