In 2007, the Labour Party were very narrowly defeated in the Scottish Parliament elections by the SNP under Alex Salmond. With Scotland going to the polls on 3rd May, the SNP emerged victorious, winning 47 seats, an increase of 20 for the party. Scottish Labour lost four seats, winning a total of 46 seats, which meant that they lost to the SNP by just one MSP.
Alex Salmond became First Minister on 17 May 2007, forming a minority SNP government. Salmond initially sought a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, but this did not work out and instead, the SNP and Scottish Greens formed an agreement where the Greens supported ministerial appointments. Under Salmond, the Scottish Executive was renamed as the Scottish Government.
During Salmond’s term as First Minister, the Scottish Government fully scrapped university tuition fees, made NHS prescriptions free at point of use and scrapped tolls on the Forth Road Bridge and Tay Road Bridge. Same-sex marriage was also legalised in Scotland during Salmond’s second term as FM.
On 5 May 2011, Scotland once again went to the polls to elect MSPs to the Scottish Parliament and what happened was a shock result. The SNP won 69 seats, an overall majority in Holyrood, thought to be almost impossible with the Additional Member System used to elect MSPs.
With an overall majority for the SNP, Salmond entered his second term as First Minister and he called for an independence referendum in Scotland. In 2012 the UK Parliament passed the Scotland Act 2012 which devolved more powers to the Scottish Government, including the ability to raise or lower income tax by up to 10p in the pound, giving Scotland the power to borrow up to £5 bn and more legislative control on several issues such as drink driving and speed limits.
Scottish Independence Referendum
With a majority of seats for the SNP after the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections, Salmond sought a referendum on Scottish Independence and in 2012 the Edinburgh Agreement was signed by the UK and Scottish Governments. The agreement set the path for the independence referendum and the date for the referendum was announced to take place on 18 September 2014. The referendum would be the most decisive vote in Scotland since the 1997 devolution referendum and would set the course for Scotland over the next few decades.
In the end, Scotland voted no to independence, with a huge turnout of 84.6% of the electorate coming out to vote. 55% voted against independence whilst 45% voted for. According to polling expert Sir John Curtice, elderly voters were most likely to vote against independence and those between 24 and 55 were generally in favour. With the results of the referendum in, Salmond announced he would stand down as leader of the SNP and as First Minister of Scotland.
Sturgeon elected unopposed for SNP
Salmond’s Deputy FM Nicola Sturgeon was elected unopposed as SNP leader and FM of Scotland, entering the post of First Minister on 20 November 2014.
In May 2015 Sturgeon faced her first big test as SNP leader – a UK General Election. The SNP won 56 out of 59 Scottish seats in Westminster and received the largest number of votes cast for a party in Scotland at a general election. With the election coming less than a year after the independence referendum, it was seen by some as a chance to hold another, but Sturgeon said this victory was not a mandate.
Just under two years into Sturgeon’s tenure as First Minister of Scotland, Scots went to the polls for the fifth time since 1999. This election is quite historic as the SNP, Labour and Conservative parties were all led by women – Nicola Sturgeon for the SNP, Ruth Davidson for the Conservatives and Kezia Dugdale for Labour. The SNP ended up falling two seats short of an overall majority and the Conservatives overtook Labour to finish second behind the SNP. This was the first time that Labour had fallen to third place in a Scottish election for 98 years. Winning 63 seats, Sturgeon and the SNP formed a minority government, and she was voted back in as First Minister.
A month after the 2016 elections, the UK went to the polls to decide the future of the UK’s membership of the European Union. Scotland voted 62% in favour of staying in the EU with all council areas in Scotland being a majority for Remain. 38% of voters in Scotland voted to leave the European Union.
However, UK-wide the result was 52% to leave and 48% to remain. Despite Scotland voting to remain, the UK voted to leave the European Union and negotiations to do so began. When the results were announced, Sturgeon said she would seek a second independence referendum as it was “clear that the people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union”.
Under Sturgeon’s leadership, the SNP continued with many of the progressive policies it had under Salmond. In 2017 the baby box scheme was rolled out across Scotland, providing families with essentials for a newborn baby such as clothes, nappies and blankets, with the box itself being able to be used as a cot with an included mattress and sheet. The SNP also introduced the Scottish Child Payment in 2021, a landmark benefit intended to reduce child poverty.
SNP and Green Party coalition
The sixth Scottish Parliament election took place in 2021 and the SNP gained one seat, taking them to 64 seats and one short of a majority. They entered into a coalition with the Scottish Green Party, which was known as the Bute House Agreement.
Scottish politics had seen a lot of changes and events since the 2016 parliament elections. Salmond had been accused of sexual misconduct in 2018 and in 2019 he was arrested and charged with fourteen offences, two counts of rape, nine of sexual assault, two of indecent assault and one of breach of the peace. Salmond was eventually found not guilty of 12 charges; one was dropped, and the remaining charge was not proven.
The election also took place during the global Covid-19 pandemic, with lockdowns already in place in Scotland. The Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament was given the power to postpone the election by up to six months if the pandemic made the provisional date of 6 May impractical.
With the SNP and Greens in coalition, Nicola Sturgeon was re-elected as First Minister for a third time becoming the first person to do so and form a third government. The same year as the 2021 elections, Scotland hosted the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP26.
One of the most discussed bills that was passed during Sturgeon’s third term as First Minister was the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill or GRR. The GRR sought to improve and expand transgender rights in Scotland, streamlining the process for a Gender Recognition Certificate, with a smoother process for gender transition. It was supported by international and domestic groups such as Amnesty International, Stonewall, Scottish Trans Alliance and Scottish Women’s Aid. The bill was supported by the LGBT+ community and was a landmark legislation for trans people in Scotland.
Prominent critics of the bill included JK Rowling and the UK Government, who have both made their anti-trans stance known over the last few years. For Women Scotland, an anti-trans group, was formed specifically in protest at the bill and at any future reform of gender in Scotland.
The bill was passed on 22 December 2022 with members of all parties in Holyrood voting to support the bill. There was some opposition, with 9 members of the SNP rebelling, and most of the Scottish Conservatives voting against.
On 16 January 2023, Scotland Secretary Alister Jack announced he would be using Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 to block the bill from proceeding to royal assent, saying that he believed the bill interfered with equality laws in England and Wales. This move was unprecedented and met with opposition from members of all parties in Holyrood, with protests against the use of Section 35 taking place in the aftermath. This was the first time Section 35 had been used.
A month after the Section 35 order, Nicola Sturgeon announced she would be stepping down as SNP leader and as First Minister of Scotland on 15 February 2023. With a tenure of 8 years and 128 days, Sturgeon was the longest-serving First Minister of Scotland.
16 years of change for Scotland and UK
Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon were in power with the SNP for 16 years combined and in that time Scotland and the UK saw vast changes. The Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 would decide Scotland’s future as an independent country or a part of the UK. Voting to stay in the UK, Scotland continued down the path of devolution, legislating for the country and changing the future. With the 2016 EU Referendum, Scotland was pulled out of the EU and the calls for independence grew as Scotland voted to stay in the EU.
The COVID-19 pandemic and Cost of Living crisis have hit Scots hard, with people struggling to pay bills and falling into debt, it’s safe to say that since Salmond became First Minister, Scotland has undergone some of the most dramatic changes in its long history. With Nicola Sturgeon stepping down, all eyes were on the SNP to see who would emerge as her successor, but who could take the reins and guide Scotland from here?
More on politics
.jpg){kind=link}
