Scottish Labour Party (1976) MP for South Ayrshire, John Robertson, then MP for Paisley and Alex Neil, the UK Labour Party's senior Scottish researcher. The split came just before the resignation of Harold Wilson as prime minister and party leader and the election of James Callaghan as his successor. By 1979 the Scottish Labour Party had lost its seats in the House of Commons, and in 1981 it was formally disbanded. Almost immediately the SLP became the focus for entryism from the International Marxist Group (IMG), and at the party's first congress in October 1976 the IMG was expelled, along with a number of
History of the Labour Party (UK) reach 40% of the popular vote. In a bid for Labour to gain a majority, a second election was soon called for October 1974 in which Labour, still with Harold Wilson as leader, scraped a majority of three, gaining just 18 seats and taking their total to 319. Britain had entered the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 while Edward Heath was Prime Minister. Although Harold Wilson and the Labour party had opposed this, in government Wilson switched to backing membership, but was defeated in a special one day Labour conference on the issue leading to a national referendum on