Scottish National Party leadership election, 1979
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There was an election to choose a new leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) held in 1979.
William Wolfe had been the leader of the SNP since winning a leadership election in 1969, and initially the party had performed well under his leadership. In 1978, he announced that he intended to stand down the following year and, as a result, he had little involvement with the party's campaign in the 1979 UK general election. The election went very badly for the SNP, which lost nine of its eleven seats in Parliament.[1][2]
Immediately after the election, a group of left-wingers in the party, including Roseanna Cunningham and Margo MacDonald, formed what became the 79 Group.[3] In response, those who wished to prioritise independence over all other considerations formed the Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland.[4] Both groups put forward candidates for election to various posts in the election held at that year's conference, held in Dundee.[5]
The most significant election at the conference was that for party leader. Three candidates stood to replace Wolfe:
- Stephen Maxwell, Vice Chair (Publicity), chair of the unsuccessful SNP campaign in the Scottish devolution referendum, 1979, and a leading figure in the 79 Group.
- Willie MacRae, Vice Chair (Administration), solicitor and unsuccessful SNP candidate for Ross and Cromarty in the general election.
- Gordon Wilson, Member of Parliament for Dundee East, former leader of the SNP Parliamentary group and spokesperson on oil and energy.
Wilson easily won the election, with 530 votes. Maxwell took 117 votes, and MacRae only 52. The 79 Group failed to win any of the elections at the conference.[6][5]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ [1] Gordon Wilson, Wolfe, William Cuthbertson (1924–2010), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
- ↑ David Torrance, "SNP fall-out that saw Salmond expelled but put party on new path", The Scotsman, 19 March 2009.
- ↑ Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, "Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations", Pinter, London, 2000, p. 388.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Peter Lynch, "SNP - The History of the Scottish National Party" (Welsh Academic Press, 2002), p. 170.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
