Scottish Labour Party

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Scottish Labour Party Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba



Leader	Wendy Alexander

Founded	1909
Headquarters	John Smith House 145 West Regent Street Glasgow G2 4RE

Ideology	Social Democracy, Democratic socialism, Third Way, Unionism
International affiliation	Socialist International
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
European Parliament Group	Party of European Socialists
Official colours	Red

Website www.scottishlabour.org.uk

The Scottish Labour Party is a brand-name of the British Labour Party which operates in Scotland. It is a unionist party and until recently has been the largest and most successful political party in modern Scottish politics, having won the largest share of the vote in Scotland at every UK general election, Scottish Parliament general election and European Parliament general election since being defeated at the 1979 European Parliament election, until coming in second place to the SNP in the Scottish Parliament general election in 2007.

The Scottish Labour Party is the second largest party in the Scottish Parliament, with 46 out of 129 seats, 39 of 59 Scottish seats in the UK Parliament, and 2 of 7 Scottish seats in the European Parliament.

In March 2006 the Scottish Labour Party membership had fallen to 18,800 members, down from a peak of approximately 30,000 in the run-up to the 1997 UK general election.^[1] The total annual income of the party in 2005, as registered with the Electoral Commission,^[2] was £523,523 (up from £318,609 in 2004), with assets of £169,502.

John McTernan, the Director of Political Operations at 10 Downing Street, was seconded to the Scottish Labour Party to run its campaign for the Scottish Parliament general election on 3 May, 2007.^[3]

1 Executive
2 Secretariat
3 Conference
4 Further reading
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Executive

Senior office-bearers:

Chairperson: Stuart Clark
Vice-Chairperson: Dave Watson
Treasurer: Hugh Scullion

Parliamentary and local government representatives:

Scottish Parliamentary Labour Group:

Jack McConnell MSP, :*Cathy Jamieson MSP, :*Margaret Curran MSP, :*Scott Barrie MSP,

Westminster Parliamentary Labour Group:

Alastair Darling MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Anne Moffat MP for East Lothian

European Parliamentary Labour Group:

David Martin MEP, former Vice President of the European Parliament (1989-2004)

Local Government Section:

Cllr Margaret McDougall (North Ayrshire Council)
Cllr Jim McCabe (North Lanarkshire Council)

Regional representatives:

Central Scotland and Glasgow Section:

Jean McKeown (Lanark and Hamilton East Constituency Labour Party (CLP))
Steven Purcell (Glasgow North West CLP)

Lothians and South of Scotland Section:

Claudia Beamish (Clydesdale CLP)
Jalal Chaudry (Edinburgh East CLP)

North East Scotland and Highlands and Islands Section:

Sandra Macdonald (Aberdeen South CLP)
Rhoda Grant (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey CLP), former MSP (1999-2003)

West of Scotland and Mid Scotland and Fife Section:

Stuart Clark (Paisley South CLP)
Judy Hamilton (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath CLP)

Trade Union Group:

Jackson Cullinane (Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU))
Ellen Davies (TGWU)
Isabel Fyfe (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, USDAW))
Richard Leonard (GMB)
Philomena Muggins (Amicus)
Cathy Murphy (GMB)
Karie Murphy (UNISON)
Hugh Scullion (Amicus)
Dave Watson (UNISON)
Nicky Wilson (National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Scotland)

Co-operative Party and Socialist Societies Section:

Mary Lockhart (Scottish Co-operative Party)
John Russell (National Union of Labour and Socialist Clubs)

Young Labour Section:

Neil Bibby
Helena Brackenridge

In addition to the Executive Committee there are 3 other business committees:

Scottish Policy Forums, Chair: Bristow Muldoon MSP
Constitution and Finance, Chair: Stuart Clark
Local Government Liaison, Chair: Cllr Jim McCabe

[edit] Secretariat

The General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party is Lesley Quinn, since November 1999. She had been the Acting General Secretary since the departure of Alex Rowley in May 1999,^[4] having previously been Rowley's assistant.^[5] Lesley Quinn is also the Registered Treasurer of the party.

In the financial year 2005 three members of staff were paid salaries directly by the Scottish Labour Party (two members of staff in 2004); all other salaries being paid directly by the Labour Party in London.

The party has its headquarters at John Smith House, 145 West Regent Street, in the Blythswood Hill district of Glasgow.

Tony McElroy is the media spokesman for the Labour Party in Scotland.

[edit] Conference

The party holds a biannual conference, the most recent being held in Aviemore between 26-26 February 2006. The next conference is to be held between 24-26 November 2006 in Oban.

Traditionally a representative of the Scottish Trades Union Congress would be invited to address conference, but this link was broken in 2003 when the invitation to Bill Speirs was withdrawn.^[6] He subsequently addressed the Scottish National Party's annual national conference.