Liberalism in Dundee  

The Scottish Liberal Democrats were formed on March 3rd, 1988 from the merger of the Scottish Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party in Scotland. We are a State Party of the Liberal Democrats, a federal political party that organises across Great Britain.

We are a democratic party. Our members elect our leaders and office-bearers, choose our candidates, write and approve our polices and campaign to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society here in Scotland.

There is a long history of Liberalism in Dundee.The city’s politics were dominated by Liberals throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries following the creation of its parliamentary seat in 1832. Notable Dundee Liberal MPs in this period included George Kinloch, Sir John Ogilvy, George Armitstead the 1st Baron Armitstead, Sir John Leng and Winston Churchill.   The latter – as a Liberal (before he returned to the Tories) famously lost his Dundee seat in the 1922 election to Edwin Scrymgeour, the only candidate ever of the Scottish Prohibition Party to be elected to parliament.

Liberals also had a long and distinguished record in local government in the city, notably Sir Garnet Wilson, Dundee’s Lord Provost 1940-46.  Among his achievements as Lord Provost was his role in persuading the NCR to make Dundee the base of its UK operations in the United Kingdom in 1945 and he also helped establish an airport in the city.

The post-war years were challenging for Liberals but there were both Liberal and SDP councillors on Dundee District Council in the 1980s, and, since 2001, the Liberal Democrats have been represented on and have a high profile on Dundee City Council.   There are currently four Dundee Liberal Democrat Councillors – Michael Crichton, Daniel Coleman, Craig Duncan and Fraser Macpherson.

Dundee Liberal Democrat Association is very active, campaigning all year round for all residents of the city.