Description
The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence or secession from the United Kingdom and for Scotland's membership of the European Union, with a platform based on civic nationalism. The SNP is the largest political party in Scotland, where it has the most seats in the Scottish Parliament and 45 out of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons at Westminster, and it is the third-largest political party by membership in the United Kingdom, behind the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. The current Scottish National Party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has served as First Minister of Scotland since 20 November 2014, though she announced her forthcoming resignation from these roles in a press conference on 15 February 2023.
Founded in 1934 with the amalgamation of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party, the party has had continuous parliamentary representation in Westminster since Winnie Ewing won the 1967 Hamilton by-election. With the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999, the SNP became the second-largest party, serving two terms as the opposition. The SNP gained power under Alex Salmond at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, forming a minority government, before going on to win the 2011 Parliament election, after which it formed Holyrood's first majority government. After Scotland voted against independence in the 2014 referendum, Salmond resigned and was succeeded by Sturgeon. The SNP was reduced back to being a minority government at the 2016 election. In the 2021 election, the SNP gained one seat and entered a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens.
The SNP is the largest political party in Scotland in terms of both seats in the Westminster and Holyrood parliaments, and membership. As of 31 December 2021, the party had 103,884 members. It currently has 45 Members of Parliament (MPs), 64 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and over 450 local councillors. The SNP is a member of the European Free Alliance (EFA). The party does not have any members of the House of Lords, on the principle that it opposes the upper house of Parliament and calls for it to be scrapped.
