Understanding third parties at Westminster: The SNP in the 2015 parliament
| Published date | 01 November 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0263395717740585 |
| Date | 01 November 2018 |
| Author | Louise Thompson |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395717740585
Politics
2018, Vol. 38(4) 443 –457
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0263395717740585
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Understanding third parties at
Westminster: The SNP in the
2015 parliament
Louise Thompson
University of Surrey, UK
Abstract
Opposition politics in the British House of Commons is dominated by the ‘Official’ Opposition.
However, other parties also carry out opposition roles in the chamber. This is particularly true
of the third largest party, which is afforded some parliamentary privileges yet is overlooked in
studies of Parliament. This article fills this gap, using a case study of the Scottish National Party
(SNP) to analyse the challenges facing the third party in the Commons. It additionally contributes
to the literature on regional nationalist parties, exploring the micro level variables affecting their
agenda-setting capacities within a state level parliament. Drawing primarily on elite interviews with
SNP members of parliaments (MPs) and staff, it finds that third party rights are not as significant as
they may appear. Party size alone is not sufficient to guarantee impact in the Commons. Strategies
to overcome the inherent procedural constraints of the chamber are also required. In the SNP
case, this included incremental organisational change, a highly collegiate intra-party culture, and
mentoring from existing MPs during the 2015 Parliament.
Keywords
House of Commons, nationalist parties, opposition, SNP, third parties, Westminster
Received: 6th December 2016; Revised version received: 19th August 2017; Accepted: 23rd August 2017
Introduction
The British parliamentary system was constructed around conflict between two opposing
political parties. This historical underpinning, together with the plurality electoral system,
facilitates a government-opposition dynamic which continues to centre British politics
around the two largest parties: presently the Conservative Party and the Labour Party.
This binary nature of parliamentary politics persists in the House of Commons despite the
presence of other opposition parties. Parliamentary procedure and the very design of the
House of Commons chamber serve to reinforce this notion (McKay et al., 2004: 247;
Rogers and Walters, 2015: 91), privileging the role of the ‘Official’ Opposition party
beyond all others who achieve representation. This means that, as Kaiser (2008: 21)
Corresponding author:
Louise Thompson, Department of Politics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK.
Email: louise.thompson@surrey.ac.uk
740585POL0010.1177/0263395717740585PoliticsThompson
research-article2017
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