Unionism in Scotland - Unionism and Political Parties

Unionism and Political Parties

The three largest and most significant political parties that support unionism in Scotland are the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative and Unionist Party, all of which organise and stand in elections across Great Britain. However, these three parties have differing beliefs about what Scotland's status should be, particularly in their support of devolution (historically Home Rule) or federalism.

The Conservatives, as a UK wide party, fielded candidates in Scotland until the creation of a separate Unionist Party, which merged into the UK-wide Conservative Party in 1965. In 1968 the Declaration of Perth policy document committed the Conservatives to Scottish devolution in some form, and in 1970 the Conservative government published Scotland's Government, a document recommending the creation of a Scottish Assembly. Support for devolution within the party declined and was opposed by the Conservative government in the 1980s and 1990s, and remained opposed in the run up to the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum. There is a small Scottish Unionist Party, which broke from the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement It has no representation in either the UK or Scottish parliaments. Jacobitism, which took place across Britain, was supported from the outset by Tories in both England and Scotland, but became associated with Scottish nationalism, and was popularised as a key part of the Scottish national identity by the writings of Walter Scott, who was a unionist and a Tory.

The Labour Party has also had a mixed relationship with devolution. In 1950, it abandoned its previous support for Home Rule. Following the Kilbrandon Report in 1973 recommending a devolved Scottish Assembly, the Labour government of 1974-1979 introduced the Scotland Act 1978 to Parliament, which initiated a referendum on devolution. Failing to pass, the referendum was shelved. When the party returned to power in 1997, they introduced a devolution referendum which resulted in the enactment of the Scotland Act 1998 and the creation of the Scottish Parliament.

The Liberal Democrats have previously been supportive of Home Rule as part of a wider belief in subsidiarity and localism. The party is generally supportive of a federal relationship between the countries of the United Kingdom.