Scottish Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition government, 1999–2007

Donald Dewar led Scottish Labour's campaign for the first general election to the Scottish Parliament on 6 May 1999. Labour won the most votes and seats, with 56 seats out of 129, a clear distance ahead of their main opponents the Scottish National Party (SNP). Labour entered government by forming a coalition government with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, with Dewar agreeing to their demand for the abolition of up-front tuition fees for university students as the price for a coalition deal.[1] Dewar became the inaugural First Minister of Scotland on 17 May 1999.[2]

Dewar died only a year later on 11 October 2000. [3] A new first minister was elected in a ballot by Scottish Labour's MSPs and national executive members, because there was insufficient time to hold a full leadership election.[4] On 26 October, Henry McLeish was elected to succeed Dewar, defeating rival Jack McConnell.

Labour's dominance of Scotland's Westminster seats continued in the 2001 general election, with a small loss of votes but no losses of seats.[5]

McLeish resigned later that year amid a scandal involving allegations that he sub-let part of his tax-subsidised Westminster constituency office without it having been registered in the register of interests kept in the Parliamentary office. The press called the affair Officegate. [6]

Though McLeish could not have personally benefited financially from the oversight, he undertook to repay the £36,000 rental income, and resigned to allow the Scottish Labour Party a clean break to prepare for the 2003 elections. After McLeish's resignation, Jack McConnell quickly emerged as the only candidate, and was elected First Minister by the Parliament on 22 November 2001, before being formally sworn into office on 27 November 2001.[7][8]

The coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats was narrowly re-elected at the 2003 Scottish general election, with Labour losing 7 seats and the Liberal Democrats gaining 1. The SNP also lost seats, though other pro-independence parties made gains.[9]

Labour once again won the majority of seats in Scotland at the 2005 UK general election.[10] The boundaries in Scotland were redrawn to reduce the number of Westminster constituencies in Scotland from 72 to 59. Labour had a notional loss of 5 seats and an actual loss of 15.

At the start of the campaign for the 2007 Scottish general election, Labour were behind the Scottish National Party (SNP) in most of the opinion polls. On 10 April, McConnell unveiled Scottish Labour's election manifesto, which included plans to scrap (?) bills for pensioners and reform Council Tax. The manifesto also proposed a large increase in public spending on education, which would allow for the school leaving age to be increased to 18 and reduce average class sizes to 19 pupils. Labour lost 4 seats and fell narrowly behind the SNP, who won 47 seats to Labour's 46 seats. Labour still won the most constituencies, but the SNP made inroads on the regional list. Both parties were well short of an overall majority in the parliament.

SNP leader Alex Salmond was elected first minister with support from the Scottish Greens, defeating McConnell 49-46 while the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats abstained.[11] Labour did take the most votes in the local elections on the same day but lost seats due to the introduction of proportional representation for local council elections.

The Executive was dissolved when Salmond was formally sworn into office as First Minister by senior judges at the Court of Session. Parliament approved Salmond’s ministerial appointments and the next government was formed.[12]