Scottish Labour Party
Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba Scots Labour Pairty |
|
---|---|
Leader | Kezia Dugdale MSP |
Deputy Leader | Alex Rowley MSP |
General Secretary | Brian Roy |
Founded | 1900 |
Headquarters | 290 Bath Street Glasgow G2 4RE |
Student wing | Scottish Labour Students |
Youth wing | Scottish Young Labour |
Membership (2015) | 18,824 |
Ideology |
British unionism Social democracy Democratic socialism Pro-Europeanism |
Political position | Centre-left |
National affiliation | Labour Party (UK) |
European affiliation | Party of European Socialists |
International affiliation |
Progressive Alliance, Socialist International (Observer) |
European Parliament group | Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats |
Colours | Red |
Scottish seats in the House of Commons |
7 / 59
|
Scottish seats in the European Parliament |
2 / 6
|
Scottish Parliament |
23 / 129
|
Local government in Scotland |
250 / 1,227
|
Website | |
www |
|
The Scottish Labour Party (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, Scots: Scots Labour Pairty; branded Scottish Labour) is the sub-national section of the UK Labour Party that covers Scotland.
Labour hold 23 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and two of six Scottish seats in the European Parliament. Labour won the largest share of the vote in Scotland at every UK general election from 1964 until 2015, where they lost heavily to the Scottish National Party, every European Parliament general election from 1979 until being defeated by the SNP in 2009, and in the first two elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and 2003. After these, Scottish Labour entered a coalition with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, forming a majority Scottish Executive. In the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, Scottish Labour became the second-largest party, with a lower share of the vote and one fewer seat than the Scottish National Party (SNP), who subsequently formed a minority government. It remained the second largest party after the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, with the SNP forming the first majority government since devolution in May 1999. In a landslide defeat at the 2015 UK general election, it was reduced to a single Member of Parliament, losing 40 of its 41 seats to the SNP, the first time the party had not won the largest number of seats in Scotland since 1959. In the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, Scottish Labour lost 13 of its 37 seats, becoming the third-largest party for the first time after being surpassed by the Scottish Conservative Party. In the most recent general election in 2017, Labour won 7 seats in Scotland - significantly improving on its 2015 performance - with 27.1% of the vote, but it became the third largest party behind the SNP and the Conservatives.