Scottish Labour’s result in the 2026 election was its worst in devolution history, but it also sits forlornly in a pattern of serial decline for a party that I dedicated much of my adult life to and once led.
The backdrop of the UK political context has been unhelpful to Scottish Labour in each of the devolved elections for at least two decades. Academic analyses of both the 2007 and 2011 elections foregrounded valence issues and perceptions of the relative competence and performance as explanations for Labour’s defeats to the SNP. But a strong part of that explanation concerns voter judgements on the party that best represents Scottish interests.
