Scottish Labour

Scottish Labour (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba) is the part of the UK Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and unionist, it holds 17 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 1,226 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 period, 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. 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 its 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...