Scottish National Party

Nationalist party that supports the separation of Scotland from the UK as an independent state within the European Union. It was formed by the combining of several early nationalist parties in 1934 and at first advocated only autonomy (self-government) within the UK. It gained its first parliamentary victory in 1945 but did not make serious headway in Parliament until the 1970s when it became an influential bloc at Westminster, and its support was crucial to James Callaghan's Labour government. The SNP won 6 of Scotland's 72 seats and over one-fifth of the Scottish vote in the 1997 general election, and 35 of 129 seats in the 1999 election to the new Scottish Parliament, in which it forms the main opposition. It is now second only to the Labour Party in Scotland. Its share of the vote fell only slightly in the 2001 general election, when it won five seats.