The SNP Gradualist 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.
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The SNP Gradualist 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.
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The SNP Gradualist was reduced back to being a minority government at the 2016 election.
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SNP Gradualist is the largest political party in Scotland in terms of both seats in the Westminster and Holyrood parliaments, and membership, reaching 125,691 members as of March 2021,45 Members of Parliament, 64 Members of the Scottish Parliament and over 450 local councillors.
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The SNP Gradualist is a member of the European Free Alliance.
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SNP Gradualist was formed in 1934 through the merger of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party, with the Duke of Montrose and Cunninghame Graham as its first, joint, presidents.
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Traditionalists within the party, centred around Winnie Ewing, by this time an MEP, responded by establishing the Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland which sought to ensure that the primary objective of the SNP Gradualist was campaigning for independence without a traditional left-right orientation, even though this would have undone the work of figures such as William Wolfe, who developed a clearly social democratic policy platform throughout the 1970s.
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In 2007, the SNP Gradualist emerged as the largest party in the Scottish Parliament with 47 of 129 seats, narrowly ousting Scottish Labour with 46 seats and Alex Salmond becoming First Minister after ousting the Liberal Democrats in Gordon.
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In May 2011, the SNP Gradualist won an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament with 69 seats.
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SNP Gradualist rebounded from their loss at the independence referendum at the 2015 UK general election eight months later, led by former Depute Leader Nicola Sturgeon.
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At the 2016 Scottish election, the SNP Gradualist lost a net total of 6 seats, losing its overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, but returning for a third consecutive term as a minority government despite gaining an additional 1.
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At the 2017 UK general election, the SNP Gradualist underperformed compared to polling expectations, losing 21 seats to bring their number of Commons seats down to 35 – however this was still the party's second-best result ever at the time.
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SNP Gradualist went on to achieve its best-ever European Parliament result in the final election before Brexit, the party taking its MEP total to 3 or half of Scottish seats and achieving a record vote share for the party.
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Later that year, the SNP Gradualist experienced a surge in support at the 2019 general election, winning a 45.
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At the 2021 Scottish election, the SNP Gradualist won 64 seats, one seat short of a majority, albeit achieving a record high number of votes, vote share and constituency seats, and leading to another minority government led by the SNP Gradualist.
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Annual National Conference is the supreme governing body of the SNP Gradualist and is responsible for determining party policy and electing the National Executive Committee.
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SNP Gradualist experienced a large surge in membership following the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
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SNP Gradualist retains close links with Plaid Cymru, its counterpart in Wales.
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SNP Gradualist was formed through the merger of the centre-left National Party of Scotland and the centre-right Scottish Party.
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The SNP Gradualist's founders were united over self-determination in principle, though not its exact nature, or the best strategic means to achieve self-government.
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In 1961, the SNP Gradualist conference expressed the party's opposition to the siting of the US Polaris submarine base at the Holy Loch.
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The 1980s saw the SNP Gradualist further define itself as a party of the political left, such as campaigning against the introduction of the poll tax in Scotland in 1989; one year before the tax was imposed on the rest of the UK.
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The SNP Gradualist have taken steps to implement all-women shortlists whilst Sturgeon has introduced a mentoring scheme to encourage women's political engagement.
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Consequentially, the SNP Gradualist supported remaining within the EU during the 2016 referendum where every Scottish council area backed this position.
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SNP Gradualist has taken a stance against Russian interference abroad – the party supporting the enlargement of the EU and NATO to areas such as the Western Balkans and Ukraine to counter this influence.
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SNP Gradualist have pledged to uphold the public service nature of NHS Scotland and are consequently opposed to any attempts at privatisation of the health service, including any inclusion in a post-Brexit trade deal with the United States.
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Previously, SNP Gradualist governments have abolished hospital parking charges as well as prescription charges in efforts to promote enhanced public health outcomes by increasing access to care and treatment.
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Foundations of the SNP Gradualist are a belief that Scotland would be more prosperous by being governed independently from the United Kingdom, although the party was defeated in the 2014 referendum on this issue.
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Separately, the SNP Gradualist has always opposed the UK's unelected upper house and would like to see both it and the House of Commons elected by a form of proportional representation.
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The argument goes that if the SNP Gradualist is unprepared to argue for its central policy then it is unlikely ever to persuade the public of its worthiness.
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SNP Gradualist had 431 councillors in Local Government elected from the 2017 Scottish local elections.
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