Minor Parties and Nationalist Parties

This lesson examines the minor and nationalist parties that play an important role in UK politics, including the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, and Reform UK.

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Why Do Minor Parties Matter?

Although the UK's First Past the Post system tends to favour two major parties, minor and nationalist parties play several important roles:

• They represent views not adequately covered by the main parties
• They can influence the political agenda (e.g. UKIP pushed the Conservatives towards an EU referendum)
• They can hold the balance of power in a hung parliament
• They dominate politics in certain regions (e.g. the SNP in Scotland)
• They provide electoral competition that forces major parties to respond to new issues

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The Scottish National Party (SNP)

Feature	Detail
Founded	1934
Ideology	Scottish nationalism, social democracy, pro-EU, pro-independence
Key leader	Alex Salmond (led independence campaign), Nicola Sturgeon (longest-serving FM), Humza Yousaf, John Swinney
Electoral success	Dominant in Scottish Parliament since 2007; won 56 of 59 Scottish seats at Westminster in 2015

Key Issues