Scottish Conservatism pre-1912 Before 1912, the Conservative Party operated in Scotland. With the emergence of mass party political groups in the second half of the 19th century, distinct organisations emerged in Scotland. The voluntary party organisation, the National Union of Conservative Associations for Scotland (mirroring the
National Union of Conservative Associations), emerged in 1882, creating a distinct Conservative conference in Scotland. A previous organisation, the Scottish National Constitutional Association, existed from 1867, with the patronage of UK party leader
Benjamin Disraeli.
The Scotsman newspaper reported that following the 1874 election "
Conservative Clubs and Working Men's Conservative Associations have spring up like mushrooms in all parts of [Scotland]". From the
Representation of the People Act 1884 until 1918, the
Liberal Party was the dominant political force in Scotland, operating in a largely two-party system with the Scottish Conservatives. In 1886, the
Liberal Unionists had broken away from the
Liberal Party in opposition to
William Gladstone's proposals for
Irish Home Rule. Joint Liberal Unionist and Conservative candidates were run across the United Kingdom, but with the organisations of these parties remaining separate.
The Unionist Party (1912–1965) Following the merger of the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists to create the modern
Conservative and Unionist Party in England and Wales, a committee was formed of the National Union of Conservative Associations for Scotland and regional Liberal Unionist associations which recommended a merger in Scotland. This was agreed in December 1912, creating the Scottish Unionist Association and the
Unionist Party. From 1918 and through the 1920s, the
Labour Party became more prominent, displacing the Liberals as one of the two main parties in Scottish politics. The Unionist Party had a number of electoral successes, topping the poll in Scotland in a number of elections from the 1930s to 1950s. During the period of its existence, the Unionist Party produced two Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom –
Bonar Law and
Alec Douglas-Home – and uniquely among parties in the post-war period, achieved more than half of the popular vote within Scotland in the
1931 general election and
1955 general election. The majority of the vote achieved in these two General Elections was combined with the
National Liberal Party who later merged with the
Conservative and Unionist Party in 1968 alongside the
Unionist Party which had already merged into the
Conservative and Unionist Party in 1965. While taking the Conservative
whip in the
House of Commons, the Unionist Party had a lengthy "unionist-nationalist" tradition, emphasising its Scottish identity within the United Kingdom and the
British Empire. This was represented by elected members such as
John Buchan (who said "I believe every Scotsman should be a Scottish nationalist") and those former Unionists who in 1932 founded the pro-
home rule Scottish Party (which later merged with the
National Party of Scotland to form the Scottish National Party).
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Following a decline in performance, coming second to the Labour Party in seats though first in votes at the
1959 general election and both votes and seats at the
1964 general election, the Unionist Party proposed a number of reforms which involved amalgamation with the Conservative and Unionist Party in England and Wales – taking place in 1965. The modern Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, as part of the wider UK Conservative Party, came into existence from this point. However its electoral fortunes continued to decline throughout the 1960s. Following
Harold Wilson's failure to obtain a Labour majority in
February 1974, a second general election was held in October of the same year which saw the party decline to below 25% of the vote and drop from 21 seats to 16. At the same time, the
SNP were to gain an unprecedented 11 MPs, unseating a number of Conservative MPs in rural constituencies. The party's fortunes recovered somewhat in 1979 under the leadership of
Margaret Thatcher, but her tenure as
Prime Minister was to see the party's fortunes drop further from holding 22 seats in
1979 to 10 in
1987. The party increased its share of the vote and number of MPs to 11 in
1992 under
John Major's leadership before dropping to 17.5% of the popular vote and failing to have any MPs returned from Scotland in 1997. It continued to return only a single MP from Scottish constituencies at the
2001,
2005,
2010 and
2015 general elections, before winning 13 seats in
2017. Following the 2010 general election performance, the party commissioned a review under
Lord Sanderson of Bowden to consider the party's future organisation. The Sanderson Commission's report recommended a single Scottish leader (replacing a leader of the Scottish Parliamentary group), reforms to governance and constituency structures, the creation of regional campaigning centres, greater focus on policy development and a new membership and fundraising drive.
Scottish devolution The party's commitments to a devolved Scottish Assembly were to decline under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. Previously the party had offered some support for a
Scottish Assembly, including in the so-called
Declaration of Perth in 1968 under UK party leader
Edward Heath. John Major, while endorsing further powers for the
Scottish Grand Committee and the
Scottish Office did not support a devolved parliament. With the Labour Party's victory in 1997, referendums on devolution were organised in Scotland and Wales, both receiving agreement that devolved legislatures should be formed. In 1999, the first elections to a devolved Scottish Parliament were held. Following the Conservatives electoral wipe-out in Scotland in 1997, devolution provided the party with a number of parliamentary representatives in Scotland. Less than a year following the first Scottish Parliament election, a
2000 by-election was held in the
Ayr constituency with
John Scott winning the seat from Labour. In the party leadership elections in 2011, the previous deputy leader
Murdo Fraser proposed disbanding the party and creating a new Scottish party of the centre-right, similar to the previous Unionist Party and compared this arrangement to the relationship between the
Christian Social Union in Bavaria and the
Christian Democratic Union in Germany. The move was opposed by the other three candidates. Victory went to the newly elected MSP Ruth Davidson who suggested that she would oppose further devolution beyond the new powers proposed by the
Calman Commission. The party was one of the three main Scottish political parties to join in the
Better Together campaign opposing Scotland becoming independent in the
2014 Scottish independence referendum. Although a Conservative majority government was returned in Westminster in the 2015 general election,
David Mundell remained their only MP elected in Scotland and was appointed
Secretary of State for Scotland. He replaced
Liberal Democrat incumbents who served during the
2010–15 Coalition government. The UK Government set about implementing the recommendations of the cross-party
Smith Commission.
Recent elections 2011 Scottish Parliament election Annabel Goldie led the party into the
2011 Scottish Parliament election, having successfully campaigned in budget negotiations with the minority SNP
Scottish Government for a number of concessions over the 2007–11 Scottish Parliament. This had resulted in commitments to 1,000 extra police officers, four-year council tax freeze and £60m town regeneration fund. The election saw the SNP win a majority and the Scottish Conservatives were reduced from 17 seats to 15, losing the
Edinburgh Pentlands constituency to the SNP, seeing notional loses in
Eastwood and
Dumfriesshire to Labour. Following the election, Annabel Goldie resigned as leader and a
leadership election was held in November 2011 – the first to appoint a Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, rather than the Scottish Parliament group, as required by the Sanderson Commission.
Ruth Davidson was returned, beating the original front-runner and former deputy leader
Murdo Fraser. Davidson drove forward a number of the Sanderson Commission's reforms, including replacing the party's
Banyan (or Indian Fig) tree logo with a "union saltire".
2015 UK general election The Conservatives made little advance at the
2015 UK general election, with Scotland's sole Conservative MP
David Mundell holding on to his
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency with a reduced majority of just 798 votes ahead of the SNP's
Emma Harper. The Conservatives made no seat gains at the election in Scotland, with target seats such as
Argyll and Bute;
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine; and
Angus being won by the SNP (who won all but 3 Scottish seats). The party did however come close in
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk where MSP
John Lamont was only 328 votes behind the SNP's
Calum Kerr: this was the most marginal result in Scotland and the eighth most marginal result in the United Kingdom.
2016 Scottish Parliament election At the
2016 Scottish Parliament election, the Scottish Conservative campaign focused on providing strong opposition to the SNP government in Scotland, opposing calls for a
second referendum on Scottish independence. The party manifesto focused on freezing business tax rates to promote economic growth and greater employment opportunities; investing in mental health treatment over the course of the next parliament; a commitment to building 100,000 affordable homes within 5 years and a re-introduction of the
Right to Buy scheme in Scotland. The Scottish Conservatives were the only major party in Scotland to oppose higher taxes to the rest of the United Kingdom during the campaign as tax reductions came in force across the rest of the UK which were opposed by the SNP, Labour and Liberal Democrats. At the election the party saw major gains, particularly on the regional list vote. The Conservatives doubled their representation in the Scottish Parliament by taking 31 seats (compared to 15 in 2011), making them the leading opposition party in the Scottish Parliament ahead of
Scottish Labour. On the constituency element of the vote the Conservatives held on to their three
first past the post constituency seats (
Ayr;
Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire and
Galloway and West Dumfries), making gains in
Aberdeenshire West;
Dumfriesshire;
Eastwood and
Edinburgh Central, where party leader Ruth Davidson stood for election. This marked the party's best electoral performance in Scotland since the
1992 UK general election.
2017 UK general election Campaigning in opposition to proposals put forward by
Nicola Sturgeon and the
Scottish Parliament for a
second referendum on Scottish independence to be held following the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union in
a referendum held in 2016 which was not supported by a majority of Scottish voters, the Scottish Conservatives had their best ever election in Scotland in seat terms since
1983 at the
2017 general election. The Conservatives gained 12 MP's in Scotland to give them 13 in total. The party had their largest vote share in a general election in Scotland since
1979, taking a total of 757,949 votes (28.6%) in Scotland. David Mundell held on to his
Dumfrieesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale seat with an increased majority of 9,441 votes (19.3%). The party also gained the
Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock;
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk; and
Dumfries and Galloway constituencies to the south of the country, and gained
East Renfrewshire on the outskirts of
Glasgow. The Conservatives also took a majority of seats in the North East of Scotland, gaining former
First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond's Gordon constituency, alongside
Moray, the seat of the SNP's Westminster leader
Angus Robertson. Other gains for the party in the North East included
Aberdeen South;
Angus;
Banff and Buchan; and
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine. The party took the
Ochil and South Perthshire; and
Stirling constituencies in central Scotland and missed out to the SNP in
Perth and North Perthshire by just 21 votes.
2019 European elections The Scottish Conservatives retained their
single seat in the
European Parliament at the
2019 European Parliament election. Incumbent MEP
Nosheena Mobarik was reelected.
2019 UK general election On 29 August 2019, Davidson stood down citing several political and personal reasons for her decision to resign as leader. The Scottish Conservatives lost more than half of their seats in Scotland to the
Scottish National Party in the
December 2019 general election, with a 3.5% swing away from the party. The lost seats were
Aberdeen South;
Angus;
Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock;
East Renfrewshire;
Gordon;
Ochil and South Perthshire; and
Stirling.
2021 Scottish Parliament election Douglas Ross led the Scottish Conservatives into the
2021 Scottish Parliament election. The party lost two constituencies it was defending (
Ayr and
Edinburgh Central) to the SNP but retained the remainder of its constituency seats with an increased vote share in some which political analysts attributed in-part to tactical voting from Unionists and credited this with preventing the SNP from gaining an overall majority. The Scottish Conservatives also came close to winning
Banffshire and Buchan Coast. The party also saw its highest result to date on the regional list with 23.5% of the vote, while losing 0.1% in the constituency vote. The Scottish Conservatives ultimately obtained 31 seats, the same as their result in the 2016 election, and remained in opposition at Holyrood.
2022 Scottish local elections The Scottish Conservatives lost 63 seats at the
2022 Scottish local elections, shedding 5.6% of the vote and taking their total first preference vote to 19.7% in what was their worst performance electorally in nearly a decade. Some of their heaviest loses occurred in Glasgow, where their total representation went from 8 councillors to 2, and Perth & Kinross, where they lost 3 councillors and control of the council to the
Scottish National Party. They also lost control of East Dunbartonshire and Angus, where they were in coalition with the
Scottish Liberal Democrats, again to the
Scottish National Party, who attracted a record share of the vote and councillors across Scotland. Douglas Ross blamed the poor performance on
Partygate, while others said his leadership was partly to blame, due to his unclear stance on whether he supported Boris Johnson remaining in office or not.
Low polling and internal rumblings Following the 2022 local elections, the Scottish Conservatives fortunes did not turn around. Much like the UK wide Conservative Party, the party have been struggling with low polling following
Boris Johnson and
Liz Truss' premiership controversies, with two polls in December 2022 showing support for the party plummeting to 13%, behind
Scottish Labour who were averaging 25% and the
Scottish National Party averaging 50%, along with rising support for
Scottish Independence. Douglas Ross' leadership authority suffered due to him u-turning on a number of policies, including scrapping the 45p tax rate, which he supported then supported the scrapping of the policy. Scottish Conservative MSP's were reported to have wanted to oust him due to the low polling and multiple u-turns, but it was subsequently revealed there isn't a mechanism in place for the Scottish Conservatives to oust their leader. Some Scottish Conservatives supported
Boris Johnson, but
Douglas Ross called on him to resign. On 12 October 2023, MP
Lisa Cameron defected to the Conservatives, becoming the first elected representative to
cross the floor to a unionist party from the SNP. She cited a "toxic and bullying" culture in her former party that led to her defection.
2024 UK general election In the
2024 general election, the Scottish Conservatives performed poorly across Scotland with 15 lost
election deposits. This included every constituency in the city of
Glasgow. Their vote share across Scotland was almost halved, down 12.3 percentage points to 12.9%. The Leader of the Scottish Conservatives
Douglas Ross lost his seat to the SNP. However against the national trend, the party saw success with
Harriet Cross winning
Gordon and Buchan unseating
Richard Thomson from the SNP. == Policies and ideology ==