Party Officers:[10] In 2008, Scottish Labour membership was reported as 17,000, down from a peak of approximately 30,000 in the run-up to the 1997 general election.

[13] The party has declined to reveal its membership figures since 2008, and did not publish the number of votes cast in the leadership elections of 2011 or 2014, only percentages.

[17] In December 2014 the newly elected leader Jim Murphy claimed that the figure was "about 20,000" on the TV programme Scotland Tonight.

[22] From the formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, it had members in Scotland, but unlike in England and Wales, it made no pact with the Liberal Party and so initially struggled to make an impact.

On 10 April, McConnell unveiled Scottish Labour's election manifesto, which included plans to scrap bills for pensioners and reform Council Tax.

[38] SNP leader Alex Salmond was elected first minister with support from the Scottish Greens, defeating McConnell 49–46 while the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats abstained.

[41] Wendy Alexander emerged as the only candidate to succeed him, and was installed as leader of the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament on 14 September 2007.

During a further TV interview two days later, she reiterated this commitment to a referendum and claimed that she had the full backing of current British prime minister Gordon Brown.

[43] The following day, however, Brown denied this was Labour policy and that Alexander had been misrepresented during Prime Minister's Questions in Westminster.

[44] Additionally, Brown's spokesman said: "The prime minister has always been confident of the strength of the argument in favour of the Union and believes a referendum on Scottish independence would be defeated.

"[43] Despite this lack of backing, Alexander once again reiterated her commitment to a referendum during First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament.

[45] On 28 June 2008, Alexander announced her resignation as Leader of Scottish Labour as a result of the pressure on her following the donation scandal.

A month after, Labour lost a safe Westminster seat to the SNP in the Glasgow East by-election.

[53] The 2009 European Parliament election was catastrophic for Labour,[54] falling behind the SNP for the first time and producing its worst results since before World War I.

[55] However, it easily won the Glasgow North East by-election later that year,[56] which had been triggered by the resignation of House Speaker Michael Martin in the wake of the expenses scandal.

The SNP went on to win an unprecedented majority in the Scottish Parliament, a result that had been considered impossible under the proportional voting system.

[59] Party leader Iain Gray, who held on to his own seat by only 151 votes, announced that he would be resigning with effect from later in the year.

[62] Anas Sarwar MP also led an unofficial organisation called the "2014 Truth Team", described by the party as "dedicated to cutting through the noise and delivering [...] facts on independence".

"[70] The party's 2014 leadership election was won by Jim Murphy, an MP who had previously served as Secretary of State for Scotland and been a prominent campaigner for the pro-Union side in the referendum.

[71][72] He also said that he planned to defeat the SNP in 2016, and would use the increased powers being devolved to Holyrood to end poverty and inequality.

[71] Labour's poll ratings in Scotland did not reverse, and the party suffered a landslide defeat in the general election in May 2015, losing 40 of their 41 seats to the SNP.

[78][79] On 1 November 2015, Scottish Labour Party delegates backed a vote to scrap the UK's Trident nuclear missile system.

On election day itself, the party managed to improve on its 2015 result and received 27% of the Scottish vote in a surprisingly good night for the party nationwide, and picked up 6 seats from the SNP in traditionally Labour areas such as Coatbridge, Glasgow, Kirkcaldy, and Rutherglen, bringing its Scottish number of seats to 7.

[84] Her deputy, Alex Rowley, took over as acting leader until 15 November, when he was suspended from Scottish Labour's parliamentary party while a probe into his conduct took place.

[95][96] After surviving previous calls for him to go,[97][98] Leonard resigned as leader on 14 January 2021, triggering the 2021 Scottish Labour leadership election.

[103] Under Sarwar's leadership, Scottish Labour have re-affirmed their constitutional position of unionism[104] which has led to a sometimes controversial selections of candidates.

At Scottish Labour conference this week you will hear Anas Sarwar relentlessly focus on the future.

[109] The party was criticised in the aftermath of the elections for pledging to do no deals or partake in coalitions with the SNP or the Greens, instead choosing to work with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to form minority administrations in several cases.

[111] Sarwar, like Starmer, voiced his opposition to a proposed second Scottish independence referendum, stating that a Labour government would not grant a Section 30 order for one to be held.

[112][113] In October 2023, Labour won the 2023 Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election with the election of Michael Shanks.