National Party of Scotland

National Party of Scotland
Founder	John MacCormick
Founded	1928
Dissolved	1934
Merged into	Scottish National Party
Ideology	Scottish Nationalism
Political position	Centre-left
Politics of Scotland Political parties Elections

The National Party of Scotland was a political party in Scotland and a forerunner of the current Scottish National Party.

The NPS was formed in 1928 after John MacCormick of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association called a meeting of all those favouring the establishment of a party favouring Scottish Home Rule. The meeting was presided over by Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, who had been a Liberal Party, then Scottish Labour Party (1888-1893) politician. The NPS was formed by the amalgamation of GUSNA with the Scots National League, Lewis Spence's Scots National Movement and the Scottish Home Rule Movement.

The NPS was a left-of-centre party. The celebrated poet, Hugh MacDiarmid was a member, but was expelled on account of his Communist beliefs (ironically he would later be expelled from the Communist Party of Great Britain for his Scottish Nationalist beliefs). Other figures besides MacDiarmid were involved. Eric Linklater stood as an NPS candidate in the 1933 East Fife by-election, and Neil Gunn played a role in aiding the NPS amalgamation with the Scottish Party.

Electoral performance

Lewis Spence was the first nationalist to stand for election. He contested Midlothian and Peebles Northern at a by-election in 1929 and came fourth, with 4.5% of the vote.^[1]

The NPS contested many elections in its short existence but never managed to get any of its candidates elected to parliament.

Amalgamation

In 1932 a home rule organisation, the Scottish Party, was formed by former members of the then Unionist Party, precursor of the modern Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. MacCormick desired unity amongst the Scottish Nationalist movement and made contact with the Scottish Party. Increasingly the two parties began to co-operate, and when the Scottish Party chose to contest the Kilmarnock by-election in November 1933 the NPS endorsed their candidate. In 1934 the NPS and Scottish Party merged to form the Scottish National Party.

National Party of Scotland (1950s)

In the 1950s, a breakaway group from the SNP - mainly composed of expelled members associated with the 55 Group - formed a new National Party of Scotland. It had a small membership and was subsequently dissolved.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 638. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 

• Collection of material relating to the Scottish National Party at The Archives Hub