“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

(This post and the research underpinning it is undertaken in my own time and outwith other political work that I do. It is presented here free to access as a public service but if you’d like to throw me a wee tip to support this work, you can here.)

The campaign for the 2024 UK General Election is underway and parties are now laying out their positions and are courting your votes. As I have with every other election since I started this blog, I’ll continue keeping a place here for party neutral information, including a post aimed at first time voters on how to vote in the elections and how that vote is translated into seats. I have written a guide on how to vote in the upcoming election and how your vote is translated into MSPs’ seats. You can read that guide here.

As a voter, it can be difficult to find information on what each of the parties are promising you – their websites can be confusing and there may be a lot of them. In this post I intend to gather as many of the political party manifestos as I can as they are published so that you can find them in one place. Unfortunately, I can’t cover independent candidates fairly and whilst I would like to be as inclusive as possible I may miss a few of the smaller parties or they may not be publishing a full manifesto (particularly if they are a single issue party). As this is a Scotland-focused blog my general rule is that for inclusion the manifesto must from from a registered political party that is standing at least two candidates across at least two constituencies in Scotland. However, I shall try to include manifestos from parties campaigning outwith Scotland but elsewhere in the UK. If parties release a distinctly Scottish version of their manifesto in addition to their UK version, I shall link to both. If you spot the publication of a manifesto before I do, please let me know and I’ll add it. I shall also welcome advance notice from party representatives themselves of when they plan to publish their manifesto.

All of the manifestos below are presented for your information and the presence or absence of any of them should not be taken as an endorsement or otherwise of any of the parties or of any of the policies that they may be promoting.

Note:- Parties marked in square brackets are placeholders for now and the prospective list may change as manifestos are published, parties emerge or, indeed, parties drop out of the electoral race.

Incumbent Parties

The following parties were represented by at least one MP in Scotland at the close of the Parliament in May 2024. Parties may not be standing candidates in every constituency. Parties are listed in order of the number of seats they held in Scotland at the close of Parliament.

Scottish National Party

Conservative and Unionist Party

Liberal Democrats

Alba

Labour

 

Insurgent Parties

The following parties did not represent Scotland in at least one seat in the UK Parliament at the close of the session but are standing at least two candidates across at least two constituencies in Scotland during this election. They may not be standing candidates in every constituency. While I shall try to make this list as complete as possible, I may not be able to do so. If a party of interest is missing, please let me know. Parties are listed alphabetically.

Reform UK

Scottish Green Party

Social Democratic Party

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

Workers Party of Britain

Parties Outwith Scotland

The following parties are standing candidates in areas of the UK outwith Scotland so are included mostly for reference for my largely Scottish audience. While I shall try to make this list as complete as possible, I may not be able to do so. Due to the sheer potential size of this category, I would prefer to limit this to parties who have demonstrated political representation at some level in the UK (anything from a dozen MPs down to a single local councillor would suffice) in the past five years while also standing at least two candidates across at least two separate constituencies in the General Election. If a party of interest to you is missing, please let me know.

Alliance

Aontú

Democratic Unionist Party

Green Party (England & Wales)

Green Party (Northern Ireland)

Plaid Cymru

Sinn Féin

Traditional Unionist Voice

Ulster Unionist Party

Changelog

29/06/24 – Aontú, GPNI and TUSC added.
26/06/24 – Alba and the UUP added.
24/06/24 – Alliance, DUP and the Scottish Conservatives added.
22/06/24 – Scottish Greens and TUV added.
19/06/24 – SNP and Sinn Féin added.
18/06/24 – Scottish Labour added.
17/06/24 – Scottish Lib Dems and Reform UK added.
13/06/24 – SDP added.
13/06/24 – Labour and Plaid added.
12/06/24 – Green Party (England and Wales) added.
11/06/24 – Conservatives added.
10/06/24 – Lib Dems added.
08/06/24 – Initial Publication – Workers Party of Britain Added.