Scottish National Party leadership election, 2004
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The 2004 Scottish National Party leadership election was held following the resignation of
John Swinney John Ramsay Swinney (born 13 April 1964) is a Scottish politician who has served as Deputy First Minister of Scotland since 2014 and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery since 2021. He was the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 200 ...
as leader of the
Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
(SNP). Nominations opened on 22 June, with three candidates nominated, and voting began on 13 August. This was the first election were all party members could vote. The results were announced on 3 September; Alex Salmond defeated
Roseanna Cunningham Roseanna Cunningham (born 27 July 1951) is a retired Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform from 2016 to 2021. She was previously Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, ...
and Michael Russell, with more than 75% of votes. In 2003, Swinney's leadership was challenged by SNP activist, Bill Wilson, who claimed the party needed a change in direction following a poor performance at the
2003 Scottish Parliament election The 2003 Scottish Parliament election was the second election of members to the Scottish Parliament. It was held on 1 May 2003 and it brought no change in terms of control of the Scottish Executive. Jack McConnell, the Labour Party MSP, rema ...
. Despite Swinney winning overwhelming support form party delegates, he would lead the party through, yet another, poor election result in the
2004 European Parliament election The 2004 European Parliament election was held between 10 and 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom. The European Parliamental parties could not be voted for, but electe ...
. The SNP began privately briefing against Swinney and on 18 June 2004 he resigned as leader. Cunningham was the first to launch her bid for leader, and she was shortly followed by
Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. She has been a member of ...
and then Russell. Speculation arose as to whether Alex Neil, who ran in the 2000 leadership contest against Swinney, and Salmond, former SNP leader, would run in the election. Neil declined and while Salmond did too, a month later, he launched his bid. As a result, Sturgeon withdrew to support him and she instead ran for Depute Leader on a joint ticket. An election for
Depute Leader of the SNP The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from t ...
was held at the same time, with Sturgeon defeating Fergus Ewing and Christine Grahame.


Background

Alex Salmond led the
Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
(SNP) through the first election to the new devolved
Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...
. The SNP had done well in opinion polls running up to the election, gaining 40% in some approval ratings, however, they failed to maintain this level of support. The party emerged as the second largest by both vote share and seats in the parliament and Salmond served as the parliament's opposition leader to the
Scottish Labour Scottish Labour ( gd, Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak of ...
- Liberal Democrat government. On 18 July 2000, Salmond resigned as the SNP leader and stood down as a
Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The ad ...
(MSP). His resignation came in the face of internal criticism after a series of high-profile fall-outs with party members. He remained an Member of Parliament (MP) in the
British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...
and led the SNP's Westminster group.


2000 leadership election

The 2000 SNP leadership election was triggered following the resignation of Salmond.
John Swinney John Ramsay Swinney (born 13 April 1964) is a Scottish politician who has served as Deputy First Minister of Scotland since 2014 and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery since 2021. He was the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 200 ...
,
Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
, and Alex Neil, Shadow Minister for Social Security, went head-to-head for the leadership role. Whilst both candidates supported the position of the SNP on the centre-left, Neil was seen as the more left-wing of the two, and individuals associated with the Neil campaign argued that a Swinney leadership would drag the SNP to the right. In some ways the race was seen as being between the SNP's
Fundamentalists and gradualists The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalism, Scottish nationalist and social democracy, social democratic list of political parties in Scotland, political party ...
. Swinney was seen as representing the SNP gradualist wing, advocating devolution as a stepping stone towards
Scottish independence Scottish independence ( gd, Neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba; sco, Scots unthirldom) is the idea of Scotland as a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom, and refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about. S ...
. Neil however was far more critical and suspicious of devolution, viewing it as a means of undermining the case for independence, and was more forceful in pushing for a party emphasis on Scottish independence. Swinney, as a gradualist, argued that independence could only follow a successful vote in a referendum, whilst Neil believed that an SNP victory would be enough to secure negotiations for independence. Both candidates opposed trident, and were largely pro-European Union. Swinney however advocated joining the Euro at the earliest opportunity, whilst Neil believed pre-emptive joining of the Euro could undermine Scottish jobs. Swinney also favoured greater European integration on issues such as defence, whilst Neil favoured a weaker EU, and opposed the pooling of defence forces. Swinney won overwhelmingly with 67.1% and was appointed
Leader of the Scottish National Party The Leader of the Scottish National Party is the head of the SNP. The incumbent is Nicola Sturgeon who was elected unopposed in November 2014, succeeding Alex Salmond as party leader and First Minister of Scotland. History The post was offici ...
. As Swinney was
Depute Leader of the SNP The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from t ...
, this triggered a depute leadership election.
Roseanna Cunningham Roseanna Cunningham (born 27 July 1951) is a retired Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform from 2016 to 2021. She was previously Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, ...
defeated Kenny MacAskill in the race.


2003 SNP leadership challenge

Swinney led the SNP through the
2001 UK General election The 2001 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 June 2001, four years after the previous election on 1 May 1997, to elect 659 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party was re-elected to serve a second term ...
and the 2003 election to the
2nd Scottish Parliament This is a list of members (MSPs) returned to the second Scottish Parliament at the 2003 Scottish Parliament election. Of the 129 members, 73 were elected from first past the post constituencies with a further 56 members being returned from eig ...
. In both elections, the SNP performed poorly and the media raised some doubt about his ability to lead the party. In the aftermath of the SNP's poor election performance in 2003, Bill Wilson, a party activist, became convinced that a change of direction was needed by the SNP leadership. After discussing this with various SNP members, he was persuaded to contest the leadership himself and launched a challenge against the Swinney. Wilson ran a campaign attacking Swinney's proposals for party reform, which he claimed would centralise power and impoverish local branches. Wilson also challenged Swinney to a series of debates, although Swinney refused to take part. Wilson also attacked what he saw as the "New Labourization" of the party, and argued that the party was more effective at pressuring Labour into changing positions on issues, rather than actively seeking power itself. The election was also yet another fight between the party's
Fundamentalists and gradualists The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalism, Scottish nationalist and social democracy, social democratic list of political parties in Scotland, political party ...
, with Wilson attacking Swinney's proposal for a referendum on independence before pursuing negotiations with the British government. Wilson argued that as soon as the SNP can form a government it should pursue negotiations to end the union. Roseanna Cunningham called Wilson was a "stalking horse" candidate put forward to "weaken and damage" the leadership. The election was held at the party's 69th annual conference, and saw Swinney winning a massive victory over Wilson. Moves in support of Wilson's proposition of pursuing independence negotiations without a referendum were thrown out at the party conference, and Swinney won significant policy battles over imposing a monthly levy on party MP's, MSP's, and MEP's. In a surprise result, the new central membership system was also approved. The membership changes had been a key issue of attack from Wilson. This was the last SNP election to use the delegate voting method. Future elections would be based on a one-person-one-vote postal vote system.


Resignation of Swinney

Following a disappointing European election result in 2004, which saw the party dropping to less than 20% of the vote, senior figures within the SNP began privately briefing against Swinney. Gil Paterson, a former MSP for Central Scotland was the first to call for Swinney's departure, with Michael Russell, a former potential campaign manager for Swinney calling for a change in approach from the SNP. Members of the SNP shadow cabinet began privately discussing removing Swinney from the leadership, and Alex Salmond advised Swinney to resign in exchange for senior party figures not calling openly for his resignation. He resigned on 22 June 2004 triggering a leadership contest.


Campaign


Salmond–Sturgeon campaign

The fight over who was to succeed Swinney saw the re-emergence of former leader Alex Salmond, who entered the race despite having repeatedly denied any ambitions to run. Most famously, Salmond quipped in June 2004 that "''If nominated I'll decline. If drafted I'll defer. And if elected I'll resign.''" Salmond launched his campaign less than a month later, on 15 July. After Salmond announced his campaign for the leadership,
Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. She has been a member of ...
dropped her bid, and ran instead for the Deputy Leadership. The two ran on a joint campaign. Kenny MacAskill dropped his bid for Deputy, and gave his support to Sturgeon.


Neil candidacy

Alex Neil, a member of the SNP fundamentalist grouping who ran against Swinney for the leadership in 2000 considered running again for party leader, although later pulled out of the race. Neil blamed Alex Salmond for "vetoing" his candidacy, and claimed that both Salmond and Ewing had stated they would refuse to work with him were he to have been elected. Neil claimed that this treatment was in line with the treatment of him and his supporters since the 2000 leadership election. Neil's campaign was also undermined by two further issues; the impression amongst the party leadership that Neil allies, such as
Campbell Martin Campbell Martin (born 10 March 1960) is a local online Scottish journalist and former politician. At the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, he was elected on the Scottish National Party (SNP) list as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MS ...
, had constantly undermined Swinney's leadership, and the fact that Neil supporters had been fundamentalist SNP party members not to renew their party membership. Rules around the holding of the new leadership election meant that any members who had not renewed their membership found it difficult to register in time.


Candidates


Nominated

The following three candidates were nominated on 16 July 2004:


Withdrew

The following MSPs announced that they would seek the leadership of the SNP but subsequently did not stand, or withdrew from the race, due to insufficient support or other reasons:


Declined

The following MSPs publicly expressed interest in the leadership of the SNP but subsequently declined to stand: * Fergus Ewing, Shadow Minister for Finance * Kenny MacAskill * Alex Neil, Convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee (''endorsed Salmond'')


Result

The election was the first SNP election to use the one-person-one-vote postal voting system.


Leadership election


Depute Leadership election


References

{{SNP
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
2004 in British politics 2004 in Scotland 2000s elections in Scotland 2004 elections in the United Kingdom Scottish National Party leadership election