Labour Party of Scotland

[2] That said, the small party has been described by historian Peter Lynch as more radical than the SNP; it was broadly left-wing and strongly supportive of Scotland's labour movement, as its name would suggest.

[3] Unlike its Glaswegian counterpart, which exclusively contested elections to the Glasgow Corporation,[4] Dundee's now larger party fought for a seat in the United Kingdom Parliament.

[11][10] Political scientist David Boothroyd believes that the intervention of the Labour Party of Scotland in the Dundee by-election prevented a similar accomplishment by splitting the nationalist vote.

Indeed, the 1,409 votes for MacLean outnumbered Machin's majority over his SNP rival Gordon Wilson;[1] Boothroyd further opines "it is questionable whether voters were clear about [the party's] origin.

"[1] Nevertheless, the SNP's popularity in both 1973 by-elections served as a prelude to the "It's Scotland's oil" political campaign,[12] which has since become synonymous with the party's economic case for Scottish independence.

[3][14] Such a decision was made in conjunction with the previously unaffiliated Glasgow party so that "the national movement could show a united front";[3] commentators Andrew Murray Scott and Iain MacLeay simply surmise "[n]either group was successful".