The 'Unionist Party', referred to as the 'Scottish Unionist Party' outwith
Scotland itself, was the main
Tory political party in Scotland between 1912 and 1965. Use of the terms 'Tory', and '
Unionist', as opposed to '
Conservative', is a consequence of the Scottish Unionists eschewing the name 'Conservative'
[1] until 1965. Even today the official website of the
Scottish Conservative Party sometimes employs the name 'Scottish Tories'
[2].
Independent of, though associated with, the
Conservative Party in
England and Wales, it stood for election at different periods of its history in alliance with a small number of
Liberal Unionist and
National Liberal candidates. Those who successfully became
Members of Parliament (MPs) would then take the Conservative Whip at Westminster just as the
Ulster Unionists did until 1973, or as current Conservative
Member of the European Parliament (MEPs) do within the
European People's Party in the
European Parliament. At Westminster the differences between the Scottish Unionist and the English (and Welsh) party could appear blurred or non-existent to the external casual observer, especially as many Scottish MPs were prominent in the parliamentary Conservative party, such as party leaders
Andrew Bonar Law (1911-1921 & 1922-1923) and
Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1963-1965), both of whom served as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The party traditionally did not stand at
local government level but instead supported and assisted the
Progressive Party in its campaigns against the British
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 British
Liberal Party with the emergence of the
Liberal Unionists under
Joseph Chamberlain. It should be noted that the 'Union' in question was the
1801 Irish Union, not that of
1707. Prior to this, the only Tory/Conservative party in Scotland was the official UK Conservative Party, which had never achieved parity with the dominant Whig and Scottish Liberal Party ascendancy since the
election reforms of 1832. The new Liberal Unionists quickly agreed to an electoral pact with the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, and in Scotland this pact overcame the former electoral dominance of the Scottish Liberals.
After the official 1912 merger of Liberal Unionists and Conservatives in the United Kingdom as the 'Conservative and Unionist Party', the Scottish Unionist Party emerged as effectively 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
Popular
imperial unity was the central thread of the Scottish Unionist Party's belief system. Whilst it was the prospect of
Irish Home Rule that set the circumstances for the party's creation, it was not the principle of they opposed, but the belief that Irish independence would lead to the break-up of the
British Empire. This was demonstrated by their acceptance and support of
Dominion status for colonies such as
Australia,
Canada,
New Zealand and
Newfoundland. This seam in the Scottish Unionist Party's belief system was demonstrated when members of the party left to establish the
Scottish Party, which eventually merged with the
National Party of Scotland to form the
Scottish National Party. It also explains what may at first seem a paradoxical statement by
John Buchan, who as a Scottish Unionist MP stated, "I believe every Scotsman should be a Scottish nationalist."
[3]
Whilst the Scottish party may have been linked on a Parliamentary level with the Conservative and Unionist Party in England and Wales, it was conscious that it had to appeal to the
liberal tradition in Scotland and studiously avoided using the term "Conservative".
[4]
The party built up significant
working-class support by emphasising the connection between 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 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
Orangemen in areas of west and central Scotland where the
Orange Lodge had strong support. Prominent
Orangemen included
Sir John Gilmour, the intermittent
Secretary for Scotland in the 1920s and
Home Secretary in the 1930s. Whilst some may see this as an
anti-Catholic appointment, it should be pointed out that it was Gilmour who, as the Secretary for Scotland, repudiated the Church of Scotland's highly controversial report entitled "
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 British
Labour party. A crucial aspect to 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
[5]. 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,
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
Westminster (Lord Glendevon's Obituary, ''
Scotsman'', 22/01/1996).
Furthermore the party's campaigning reflected their desire to reconcile the two themes of
individualism and
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."
[6]
Electoral record and the 1955 election
Compared to the UK Conservative Party's pre-1886 record in Scotland, as well as the post-1965
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, the 1912-1965 Scottish Unionist Party's electoral record stands out as a success.
With the UK 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 Liberals also assisted the Unionist vote.
Within this context their support grew, and the emergence of the
Labour party as a threat to the
middle-classes resulted in the Scottish Unionists achieving a majority of Scottish seats in the
1924 election, 37 out of Scotland's 73. Suffering a setback in
1929, they reasserted themselves in the
1931 election during an electoral backlash against the Labour Party that resulted in the creation of the
National Government. The Scottish Unionist Party won 79% of the Scottish seats that year: 58 out of 73. The following
election of 1935 returned a reduced majority of 45 MPs.
This remained the situation until Labour's landslide victory in the
1945 election. The Unionists won only 30 of the (now) 71 constituencies. In the
1950 election, a majority of Labour MPs was returned again, but the Scottish Unionist Party closed the gap by returning 32 MPs. The Conservatives had suffered devastating losses in England & Wales between 1945 and 1950, and the addition of the Scottish Unionist MPs proved vital. In the subsequent Conservative election victory of
1951, an equal number of Labour and Unionist MPs were returned from Scotland, 35, with one solitary Liberal taking the remaining seat.
With Church of Scotland membership reaching record levels, the
1955 election brought unparalleled success as the party gained 50.1% of the vote and 36 of the 71 seats at Westminster. Often cited as the only party to achieve a majority of the Scottish vote, it should be pointed out that 6 of the Conservative and Unionist MPs were returned that year under the label of 'Liberal Unionist' or 'National Liberal'. And this apparent success was the prelude to a number of events that weakened the appeal of the both the Scottish Unionist Party and the Scottish Conservative branch that followed.
Suez and after
Only a year after the 1955 triumph, one event signaled the unraveling of the thread that had until then united Scottish Unionist support: the humiliation of the 1956
Suez Crisis. The event was a symbolic end for the
British Empire; not only was British power seen to be eclipsed by the
United States, but the unity of the Empire itself came into question. It was at this time that
Canada's
Lester Pearson led the
United Nations' calls for a negotiated settlement and even offered Canadian troops as neutral
peacekeepers to replace British soldiers.
Furthermore, in 1960 Conservative
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made his "
Winds of Change" speech to the
South African Parliament. This signaled an end to the colonial administration of British Empire overseas possessions and began their emergence as independent states. The change in Conservative attitudes to the cohesion of the British Empire had been illustrated earlier in 1958 with the expulsion of the
League of Empire Loyalists from the Conservative Party Conference.
Psychologically these events marked the end of the British Empire, and with it the central thread of popular imperial unity which had bolstered the Scottish Unionist Party until then. In the
1959 election that saw the Unionist's sister Conservative party increase their overall majority in the Commons, the Scottish Unionist's own vote declined, and four MPs lost their seats. In the Conservative defeat of
1964 eight more Unionist MPs were lost.
Merger with the UK Conservative Party
With electoral defeat, reforms in 1965 brought an end to the Scottish Unionist Party as an independent force. It was a renamed 'Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party' that constitutionally then came under the control of the UK party. These, and further reforms in 1977, saw the Scottish Conservatives transformed into a regional unit, with its personnel, finance, and political offices under the control of the leadership in London.
These changes had serious implications for the Conservatives' Scottish identity. Set alongside the end of Empire (and the emergence of several independent states) it witnessed the rise of the
Scottish National Party (SNP) as sections of the old Unionist and Labour nationalist vote swung to the SNP. This seemingly paradoxical swing from Unionist to SNP can be explained for three reasons: the old Scottish Unionist Party's projection as an independent Scottish party opposing a UK Labour Party; the new use of the name "Conservative" viewed as
English; and the Unionist-Nationalist tradition of
John Buchan and others who had founded the
Scottish Party.
Consequences of merger
As the British Empire came to an end, so to did the primacy of Protestant associations, as secularism and ecumenicalism rose. The decline of strictly Protestant associations, and the loss of it 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'' newspaper switching from the Unionists to Labour, the UK Conservative Party in the 1960s was mercilessly portrayed as a party of the
Anglicised aristocracy. Combined with the new name, this helped switch previous Unionist voters to the Labour party and the SNP, which advanced considerably in the elections of
February and
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 Northern Irish paramilitaries than its 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
Margaret Thatcher signed the
Anglo-Irish Agreement. This event witnessed the Orange Lodge (amongst other supporters) settting up its own
Scottish Unionist Party.
External links
★
Official Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party website
★
"The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party" by Dr David Seawright
★
"Baldwin and Scotland: More than Englishness" by Gabrielle Ward-Smith
★
"British Statewide Parties and Multilevel Politics" by Hopkin & Bradbury
★
Number of Scottish MPs by Party 1868 - present
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