Coalition and minority rule – not majority government – are the general rule in Scotland and Wales. Since 1918, most governments in Westminster have been majority ones (although nearly 30 years have been spent under minority or coalition government). In Scotland and Wales however, the electoral system is designed to make majority governments rare. In Scotland, Labour and the Liberal Democrats formed coalition governments in 1999 and 2003, but seat losses in 2007 meant that Labour and the Liberal Democrats no longer represented a majority, and the SNP had become the largest party. Instead, the Scottish National Party formed a minority government in 2007, and a majority one in 2011. The SNP’s 2011 majority (initially 69, or five seats) has reduced over time; defections and resignations mean that since 2014 they have had only 64 MSPs – only a majority due to a vacant seat following Margo MacDonald’s death in April of that year. In Wales, Labour has always been the largest party but has only had a majority government after the 2003 election, when Lord Elis Thomas – an AM for Plaid Cymru – was elected Presiding Officer, giving Labour a narrow majority of 30 of the 59 voting […]

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