Crofters Party

The MPs elected with the backing of the Highland Land League formed themselves into the Crofters' Party, although they were also known as Independent Liberals.

c. 29), which applied to croft tenure in an area which is now recognisable as a definition of the Highlands and Islands[2] The Act granted real security of tenure of existing crofts and established the first Crofters Commission[3] which had rent-fixing powers.

The Act failed however to address the issue of severely limited access to land, and crofters renewed their protest actions.

[citation needed] At the same time there was a shift in the political climate: William Gladstone's Liberal government fell from power; the new Conservative government was much less sympathetic to the plight of crofters and much more willing to use troops to quell protests.

John Macdonald Cameron, MP for Wick Burghs, ran under the banner of the Wick Radical Workingmen's Association in 1885, but was endorsed by the Land League; subsequently he ran as the official Liberal Party candidate.