2026 Scottish General election (IndyScotland2025)

The 2026 Scottish General election was held on the 6th May to elect 129 MPs to the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh. This was the first election held since Scotland gained independence in 2025, and the first held under the Scottish Electoral Committee. Due to there being new rules for elections, most political parties disbanded and new ones were created in their place, but most notably, the Scottish National Party only renamed. Due to there being new parties, a lot of politicians joined with their former opponents as independence no longer divided the country. The issues that did divide the country were monetary policy and foreign relations.

Background
A second Scottish independence referendum was held in 2025, which returned a 'Leave' result. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon immediately started talks and the transition period ended on the 1st May 2026. A trade deal was struck between Scotland and the UK, which heavily benefited Scotland as they were rejected by the European Union to become a member state. Scotland only managed to strike one other trade deal, with Australia, which was seen as a last resort as it included many harmful clauses for Scotland.

This ultimately impacted on the electoral successes of Nicola Sturgeon's National Party, and catapulted Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater's Green Bloc into power. They were seen by many former SNP supporters to be responsible and climate conscious in their approach to trade and foreign affairs. The people of Scotland seemed to trust the Green Bloc to secure more trade deals that would be sustainable and advantageous for both sides of the agreements.

The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party was disbanded after their defeat at the 2025 Scottish independence referendum, and split into the Moderate Party - which contained the centrist Conservatives - Rejoin UK - who took on the ultra-unionists and more right-wing Conservatives - and Scotland First - where the most right-wing Conservatives migrated to. This was interesting as former Conservative members were joining forces with Alex Salmond, which many didn't see happening.

Labour was disbanded in time for this election after being told they had to by the Scottish Electoral Committee. They joined with other left-wing parties such as the Scottish Socialists, some Scottish Greens and even some Liberal Democrats to form the Left Alliance. This brought climate change, LGBT+ rights and more into the interests of the party, which proved popular with the electorate.

The Liberal Democrats decided they needed to disband to rethink their strategy for this election. They decided to take on a progressive approach to every aspect of politics. They moved more left-wing than the former Scottish Liberal Democrats, but stayed predominantly centrist. Their home affairs policies were extremely popular with the electorate and they managed to increase their numbers.

Reform UK Scotland decided to only rename, and still held links with Nigel Farage's Reform UK. Their one aim during the referendum was to cancel the vote entirely, which many viewed as undemocratic. After their campaign lost at the referendum, their new aim was to get Scotland to rejoin the United Kingdom as fast as possible as they thought Scotland wouldn't survive without the support the UK previously provided.

The Alba Party also only decided to rename as Alex Salmond thought it best that Scotland have a party that thought about Scotland's interests first. Already unpopular with the average Scot, Alex Salmond wasn't given the benefit of the doubt, especially seeing as though his party was regarded as the UKIP of Scotland.

Coalition Forming & Resultant Government
In this election, no party had a majority, but, as the largest party, the Green Bloc started talks with other parties to form a coalition. Talks with the Left Alliance broke down due to many disagreements on foreign and trade policy, as well as anger towards the Left Alliance for taking members away from the Green Bloc. The only other party the Green Bloc was willing to reach an agreement with was the Progressive Democrats. Talks went incredibly well and the general consensus was that the parties complimented each other well.

An agreement was reached on the 20th May 2026, and the government was formed. The following members made up the cabinet:

Prime Minister: Patrick Harvie (Green Bloc)

Deputy Prime Minister: Alex Cole-Hamilton (Progressive Democrats)

Treasury, Welfare and Employment Secretary: Wendy Chamberlain (Progressive Democrats)

Foreign Secretary: Lorna Slater (Green Bloc)

Defence & Security Secretary: Jamie Stone (Progressive Democrats)

Home Secretary: Willie Rennie (Progressive Democrats)

Health Secretary: Alex Cole-Hamilton (Progressive Democrats)

Trade & International Development Secretary: Maggie Chapman (Green Bloc)

Education & Skills Secretary: Ross Greer (Green Bloc)

Justice Secretary: Liam McArthur (Progressive Democrats)

Equalities Secretary: Caron Lindsay (Progressive Democrats)

Communities, Housing, Islands & Local Government Secretary: Ariane Burgess (Green Bloc)

Transport, Infrastructure & Connectivity Secretary: Mark Ruskell (Green Bloc)

Environment, Climate Change & Animal Welfare Secretary: Gillian Mackay (Green Bloc)

Tourism & Culture Secretary: Laura Moodie (Green Bloc)