Emerging and Minor Parties

• Scottish National Party (SNP) – Won enough seats in 2007 to form a government in Holyrood and have governed in Scotland ever since. In 2015 they won 56 of the 59 Scottish seats available in Westminster(4.7% of the total UK vote), 35 seats in 2017 (3.1% of the total UK vote) and 48 seats in 2019 (3.9% of the total UK vote).
• Policies of SNP – Overall objective is to complete Scottish independence and join the EU. Outside of this they are a social democratic party and support social justice e.g a living wage. Are also opposed to trident, have abolished university fees in Scotland and want to protect the environment and the welfare state.
• Green party – Have had 1 MP since 2010, Caroline Lucas of Brighton Pavillion.
• The Green Party have 2 peers in the House of Lords .
• Environmental concerns are at the heart of the Green Party's policies but there is a left-wing stance in other areas. Government should finance large amounts of new homes to fix the housing crisis, massive investment in public transport, extensive constitutional reform, wealth tax on top 1% and opposed to trident.
• UKIP, although largely an irrelevance, they did gain 12.6% of the vote in 2015 and only gained 1 MP.
• Sinn Fein is the Catholic republican party from Northern Ireland, although they famously never take their seats.
• The DUP are the protestant Unionist party in Ireland, they provided May with votes in the aftermath of losing the Conservative majority in 2017.
• Plaid Cymru are the national party of Wales.
• Minor parties do impact our democracy

  1. Indirectly influence policy by moving the Overton Window – e.g Conservatives pledge to be carbon neutral by 2050 for Greens, UKIP’s support pushing Conservatives to Brexit stance and SNP popularity forcing indyref in 2014.

  2) Create more representation in our democracy through a multi-party system

  3) Successful in elections that are not GE election e.g local councils in 2019 had Lib Dems with 700 councilors and Greens with 200, 2019 European elections had Brexit party as the biggest party with 31.6% and Lib Dems in 2nd with 20.6% of the vote
• Minor parties are an irrelevance

  1. Decisions made by government which smaller parties do not often get a chance to influence

  2) Hard for them to get their points across to the public when their manifesto’s and policies do not get mentioned as much in the media, and their leaders do not get as much air-time

  3) Only one official opposition party which is one of the big two.

  4) UK is a two-party state
• Minor parties do impact our democracy

  1. Indirectly influence policy by moving the Overton Window – e.g Conservatives pledge to be carbon neutral by 2050 for Greens, UKIP’s support pushing Conservatives to Brexit stance and SNP popularity forcing indyref in 2014.

  2) Create more representation in our democracy through a multi-party system

  3) Successful in elections that are not GE election e.g local councils in 2019 had Lib Dems with 700 councilors and Greens with 200, 2019 European elections had Brexit party as the biggest party with 31.6% and Lib Dems in 2nd with 20.6% of the vote
• Minor parties are an irrelevance

  1. Decisions made by government which smaller parties do not often get a chance to influence

  2) Hard for them to get their points across to the public when their manifesto’s and policies do not get mentioned as much in the media, and their leaders do not get as much air-time

  3) Only one official opposition party which is one of the big two.

  4) UK is a two-party state