View source for Unionist Party (Scotland)

{{short description|Former centre-right political party in Scotland}}
{{about|the historical party|the unrelated modern party|Scottish Unionist Party (1986)}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox political party
|country = Scotland
|name = Unionist Party
|colorcode = {{party color|Unionist Party (Scotland)}}
|logo = Unionist Party (Scotland) logo.svg
|leader = 
|chairman = 
|foundation = 1912
|dissolution = 1965
|ideology = {{plainlist|
*[[Conservatism (politics)|Conservatism]]
*[[British unionism]]
*[[British imperialism]]
*[[Scotland|Scottish]] [[Regionalism (politics)|regionalism]]}}
|position = [[Centre-right politics|Centre-right]]
|national = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]]
|international =
|european = 
|europarl = 
|predecessor = {{plainlist|
*[[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]]
*[[Liberal Unionist Party]]}}
|colours = 
|headquarters = 
|website = 
|merged = [[Scottish Conservatives]]
}}
The '''Unionist Party''' was the main centre-right political party in Scotland between 1912 and 1965.<ref name="polis.leeds.ac.uk">{{Cite web | url=http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/working-papers/wp13seawright.pdf | title=School of Politics and International Studies | access-date=3 September 2008 | archive-date=22 February 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222160221/http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/working-papers/wp13seawright.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Independent of, although associated with, the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] in [[England and Wales]], it stood for election at different periods of its history in alliance with a few [[Liberal Unionist Party|Liberal Unionist]] and [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|National Liberal]] candidates. Those who became members of parliament (MPs) would take the Conservative [[Whip (politics)|Whip]] at Westminster as the [[Ulster Unionist Party|Ulster Unionists]] did until 1972. At Westminster, the differences between the Scottish Unionist and the English party could appear blurred or non-existent to the external casual observer, especially as many Scottish MPs were prominent in the parliamentary Conservative Party. Examples include party leaders [[Bonar Law]] (1911–1921 and 1922–1923) and [[Alec Douglas-Home|Sir Alec Douglas-Home]] (1963–1965), both of whom served as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]].

The party traditionally did not stand at the local government level but it instead supported and assisted the [[Progressives (Scotland)|Progressive Party]] in its campaigns against the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]. This relationship ended when the Conservatives started fielding their own candidates, who stood against both Labour and the Progressives.

==Origins==
The origins of the Scottish Unionist Party lie in the 1886 split of the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] and the emergence of the [[Liberal Unionist Party|Liberal Unionists]] under [[Joseph Chamberlain]]. The union in question was the [[Act of Union 1800|1800 Irish Union]], not the [[Acts of Union 1707|Scottish Union of 1707]]. Before this, the Tory party in Scotland had never achieved parity with the dominant Whig and Scottish Liberal ascendancy since the [[Scottish Reform Act 1832|election reforms of 1832]]. The Liberal Unionists quickly agreed to an electoral pact with the Tories, and in Scotland this overcame the former electoral dominance of the Scottish Liberals.

After the 1912 merger of Liberal Unionists and Conservatives as the Conservative and Unionist Party, the Scottish Unionist Party effectively acted as the Conservative Party in Scotland, although some candidates still stood on a Liberal Unionist ticket because of the latent appeal of the word "Liberal" in Scotland.

==Ethos and appeal==
[[File:United Kingdom general election 1931 in Scotland.svg|thumb|Map of the results of the 1931 general election in Scotland; when the Unionists won a record 66% of Scottish seats. {{legend|#5555FF|Conservative/Unionist}} {{legend|#DC241F|Labour}} {{legend|#FFD700|Liberal}} {{legend|#AFEEEE|National Liberal}} {{legend|#800000|Independent Labour Party}}]]
Popular [[imperialism|imperial]] unity was the central thread of the Scottish Unionist Party's belief system. While the Scottish Unionist party was linked on a Parliamentary level with the Conservative Party in England and Wales, it was conscious that it had to appeal to the liberal tradition in Scotland, and so until 1965; it studiously avoided using the term "Conservative".<ref name="polis.leeds.ac.uk"/> For example, it used Conservative Party literature but changed the word 'Conservative' to 'Unionist'.<ref>David Seawright, ''An Important Matter of Principle'' (Routledge, 2018)</ref>

The party built up significant working-class support by emphasising the connection between the Union, the Empire, and the fate of local industry. Unity across the classes was often cited as one of the party's planks of unionism. Along with this [[protectionism]], [[protestantism]] also played an important part in the party's working-class appeal. Although not explicitly articulated by the party, lest it alienate what small but wealthy middle and upper-class [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] support it had, this appeal was projected through the endorsement and promotion of well-known [[Church of Scotland]] members like [[John Buchan]], or prominent [[Orange Order|Orangemen]] in areas of west and central Scotland where the [[Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland]] had strong support. Prominent Orangemen included [[Sir John Gilmour, 2nd Baronet|Sir John Gilmour]], the intermittent [[Secretary for Scotland]] in the 1920s and [[Home Secretary]] in the 1930s. Some saw this as an [[anti-Catholic]] appointment; however, it was Gilmour who, as the Secretary for Scotland, repudiated the Church of Scotland's highly controversial report entitled "[[Roman Catholicism in Scotland#Sectarian tensions|The Menace of the Irish Race to our Scottish Nationality]]".

Being an independent Scottish party also drew electoral appeal when set against the threat of a [[London]]-based centralising [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]. A crucial aspect of this, particularly in the 1940s and 1950s, was the ability to place an "alien" identity upon Labour by successfully using the term "Socialist" to describe the Labour Party.<ref name="polis.leeds.ac.uk"/> This distinctively Scottish appeal was further strengthened when combined with opposition to the Labour Party's post-war [[nationalisation]] programme, which centralised control (in London) of former Scottish-owned businesses and council-run services. The strong Scottish character of the party was even evident in relations with Conservative government ministers, when, for example, [[John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Baron Glendevon|Lord Glendevon]] admitted he would be at odds with Scotland's Unionist Party for refusing the post of [[Secretary of State for Scotland]] because he preferred to remain at [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Lord Glendevon's Obituary |work=[[The Scotsman]] |date=22 January 1996}}</ref>

The party's campaigns reflected their desire to reconcile the themes of [[individualism]] and [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivism]] in their appeal to potential Labour voters. This projected an image of flexibility and [[pragmatism]] when they expressed their support for the synthesis of "two fundamental ideas of human individuality and of service to others and to the community."<ref name="polis.leeds.ac.uk"/>

==Electoral record and the 1955 general election==
[[File:United Kingdom general election 1955 in Scotland.svg|thumb|Map of the results of the 1955 general election in Scotland; often cited as a high point for the Unionist Party. {{legend|#5555FF|Conservative/Unionist}} {{legend|#DC241F|Labour}} {{legend|#FFD700|Liberal}} {{legend|#AFEEEE|National Liberal}}]]

With the Liberal Party divided and declining, the Scottish Unionist Party managed to attract former Liberal voters during this period – sometimes with candidates standing on a [[Liberal Unionist]] ticket. The creation of the [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|National Liberals]] also helped increase the Unionist vote.

Within this context, their support grew, and the emergence of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] as a threat to the middle-classes resulted in the Scottish Unionists gaining a majority of Scottish seats at the [[1924 United Kingdom general election|1924 general election]], with 37 out of Scotland's 73 seats. Suffering a setback in [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]], they reasserted themselves at the [[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931 general election]] during an electoral backlash against the Labour Party that resulted in the creation of the [[UK National Government|National Government]]. The Scottish Unionist Party won 79% of the Scottish seats that year, 58 out of 73. In [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935]], they returned a reduced majority of 45 MPs.

This remained the case until Labour's landslide victory at the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]]. The Unionists won only 30 of the 71 seats in Scotland. At the [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950 general election]], a majority of Labour MPs was returned again, but the Scottish Unionist Party closed the gap by returning 32 MPs. At the subsequent Conservative election victory [[1951 United Kingdom general election|the following year]], an equal number of Labour and Unionist MPs were returned from Scotland, 35, with [[Jo Grimond]] of the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] retaining the [[Orkney and Shetland (UK Parliament constituency)|Orkney and Shetland]] seat.

With Church of Scotland membership peaking at 1,300,000 in 1955 – or over one-quarter of Scotland's population<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hassan|first1=Gerry|last2=Shaw|first2=Eric|title=Strange Death of Labour Scotland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yZ9vAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA221|year=2012|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-5557-1|page=221}}</ref> – the [[1955 United Kingdom general election|1955 general election]] brought unparalleled success as the party gained 50.1% of the vote and 36 of the 71 seats at Westminster.<ref name="SA18">{{cite journal |last1=Torrance |first1=David |title='Standing up for Scotland': The Scottish Unionist Party and 'nationalist unionism', 1912–68 |journal=Scottish Affairs |via=Edinburgh University Press|date=April 2018 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=169–188 |doi=10.3366/scot.2018.0235}}</ref>{{rp|179}} Often cited as the only party to achieve a majority of the Scottish vote, six of the Conservative and Unionist MPs were returned that year under the label of Liberal Unionist or National Liberal. This apparent success was the prelude to a number of events that weakened the appeal of both the Scottish Unionist Party and the Scottish Conservatives that followed.

==Merger with the Conservative Party==
Following electoral defeat when the Party lost six seats in Scotland at the [[1964 United Kingdom general election]], reforms in April 1965 brought an end to the Scottish Unionist Party as an independent force.<ref name="SA18"/>{{rp|180}}<ref>    {{cite journal |last1=Urwin |first1=D.W. |date= 1 June 1966 |title=Scottish Conservatism: A Party Organization in Transition |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9248.1966.tb00399.x?journalCode=psxa |journal=Political Studies |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=145–162 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9248.1966.tb00399.x |access-date=18 Aug 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It was renamed "Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party" that constitutionally then came under the control of the mainstream UK party. These, and further reforms in 1977, saw the Scottish Conservatives transformed into a regional unit, with its personnel, finances, and political offices under the control of the party leadership in London.

==Consequences of merger==
As the [[British Empire]] came to an end, so too did the primacy of Protestant associations, as [[secularism]] and [[ecumenism]] rose. The decline of strictly Protestant associations, and the loss of its Protestant working-class base, spelled the erosion of the Unionist vote. Though many Conservatives would still identify with the Kirk, most members of the established Church of Scotland did not identify themselves as Conservatives.

With the ''[[Daily Record (Scotland)|Daily Record]]'' newspaper switching from endorsing the Unionists to the Labour Party,<ref name="SA18"/>{{rp|180}} the Conservative Party in the 1960s was mercilessly portrayed as a party of the [[Anglicised]] [[aristocracy]]. Combined with the new name, this helped turn previous Unionist voters to the Labour Party and the SNP, which advanced considerably at the two general elections of [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February]] and [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|October]] 1974.

The relations between the Scottish Conservatives with the largely working-class Orange Order also became problematic because of the perceived aristocratic connection of the former, but it was [[The Troubles]] in Northern Ireland that created more concrete problems. On one level, there was the residual perception of a connection that many mainstream Protestant voters associated with the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland – a perception that is unfair to a large extent since the Scottish Orange Order has dealt more stringently with members associating with [[Loyalist paramilitaries]] than its Northern Irish equivalent. However, the ramifications of this perception also led to the Scottish Conservative Party downplaying and ignoring past associations, which further widened the gap with the Orange Order. Any links that lingered were ultimately broken when [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] signed the [[Anglo-Irish Agreement]]. This event witnessed Orange Lodges (amongst other supporters) setting up their own [[Scottish Unionist Party (1986)|Scottish Unionist Party]].

==Electoral performance==

This chart shows the electoral results of the Scottish Unionist Party, from its first general election contested in [[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918]], to its last in [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964]]. Total number of seats, and vote percentage, is for Scotland only.

{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
! width=100px| Election
! width=100px| Vote %
! width=100px| Seats
! width=470px| Outcome of election
|-
| align=center|[[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918]]
| align=center|30.8%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|28|73|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|'Coalition' Conservative Hung Parliament / 'Coalition' Liberal Victory
|-
| align=center|[[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922]]
| align=center|25.1%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|13|73|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|'''''Conservative Victory ([[Bonar Law|Unionist Prime Minister]])'''''
|-
| align=center|[[1923 United Kingdom general election|1923]]
| align=center|31.6%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|14|73|hex=#5555FF}}
|'''Conservative Hung Parliament'''
|-
| align=center|[[1924 United Kingdom general election|1924]]
| align=center|40.7%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|36|73|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|'''Conservative Victory'''
|-
| align=center|[[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]]
| align=center|35.9%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|20|73|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|Labour Hung Parliament
|-
| align=center|[[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931]]
| align=center|49.5%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|48|73|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|'''Conservative Victory'''
|-
| align=center|[[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935]]
| align=center|42.0%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|35|73|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|'''National Government (Conservative) Victory'''
|-
| align=center|[[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945]]
| align=center|36.7%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|24|71|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|Labour Victory
|-
| align=center|[[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]]
| align=center|37.2%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|26|71|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|Labour Victory
|-
| align=center|[[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951]]
| align=center|39.9%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|29|71|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|'''Conservative Victory'''
|-
| align=center|[[1955 United Kingdom general election|1955]]
| align=center|41.5%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|30|71|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|'''Conservative Victory''' (Unionists & National Liberal total was 50.1% of the vote and 36 seats)
|-
| align=center|[[1959 United Kingdom general election|1959]]
| align=center|39.8%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|25|71|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|'''Conservative Victory'''
|-
| align=center|[[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964]]
| align=center|37.3%
| align=left|{{Composition bar|24|71|hex=#5555FF}}
| align=left|Labour Victory ''([[Alec Douglas-Home|Unionist Prime Minister]])''
|}

==Party Chairmen==
*[[George Younger, 1st Viscount Younger of Leckie|George Younger]], 1916–1923
*[[Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow|The Marquess of Linlithgow]], 1924–1926
*[[Harriet Findlay]], 1928
*[[John Craik-Henderson]]
*[[James Stuart, 1st Viscount Stuart of Findhorn|Viscount Stuart of Findhorn]], 1950–1962
*[[Michael Noble, Baron Glenkinglas|Michael Noble]], 1962–1963
*[[John George (Conservative politician)|Sir John George]], 1963–1965
*[[John Gilmour, 3rd Baronet|John Gilmour]], 1965–1967

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{citation|doi=10.1093/publius/pjj008|title=British Statewide Parties and Multilevel Politics|journal=Publius: The Journal of Federalism|volume=36|pages=135–152|year=2006|last1=Hopkin|first1=J.|url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/3521/1/British_statewide_parties_and_multi-level_politics_%28LSERO%29.pdf}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Scottish Unionist Party}}
*[http://www.scottishconservatives.com/ Official Scottish Conservative Party website]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110222160221/http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/working-papers/wp13seawright.pdf "The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party: 'the lesser spotted Tory'?" by Dr David Seawright]
*[http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cbh/2001/00000015/00000001/art00005 "Baldwin and Scotland: More than Englishness" by Gabrielle Ward-Smith]
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050906060744/http://www.alba.org.uk/westminster/results.html Number of Scottish MPs by Party 1868 – present]}}
*[http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2001/rp01-037.pdf Scottish Election Results 1945–1997] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017014426/http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2001/rp01-037.pdf |date=17 October 2012 }}

{{Defunct political parties in Scotland}}
{{Conservative Party (UK)}}

[[Category:Political parties established in 1912]]
[[Category:Defunct political parties in Scotland]]
[[Category:Scottish Conservatives]]
[[Category:Unionism in Scotland]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 1965]]
[[Category:1912 establishments in Scotland]]
[[Category:History of the Conservative Party (UK)]]
[[Category:1965 disestablishments in Scotland]]