On 11 September 1997, Scotland voted emphatically in favour of a devolved parliament with tax-varying powers. The result marked the culmination of decades of campaigning for Scottish devolution/home rule.

The 1997 devolution referendum differed substantially from the vote held two decades previously in 1979, when Scotland’s appetite for a devolved legislature was first tested.

The 1979 referendum was a post-legislative vote held on the scheme set out in the Scotland Act 1978, as proposed by James Callaghan’s Labour government.

The referendum failed due to a provision inserted into the 1978 act. The controversial amendment, spearheaded by the anti-devolutionist Labour MP George Cunningham, required 40% of the total Scottish electorate to back devolution. It provided for a double test: a majority in favour of an assembly, and a substantial turnout.

In total, 51.6% supported the formation of an assembly in 1979. On a turnout of 63.8%, however, this represented only 32.9% of the electorate.

The 1979 referendum marked the final act of an ailing Labour administration. The 1997 referendum, meanwhile, was delivered by Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ government just four months after securing a landslide election victory.

The 1997 referendum also asked two separate questions: one to gauge opinion on the principle of a parliament and another to tackle its tax-raising powers.

Separately, Scots were asked if they agreed “that there should be a Scottish Parliament” and “that a Scottish Parliament should have tax-varying powers”.

On the first question, 1,775,045 voters (74.3%) voted ‘Yes’. 614,400 (25.7%) voted ‘No’. On the second question regarding tax-varying powers, 1,512,889 voters (63.5%) voted ‘Yes’. 870,263 (36.5%) voted ‘No’.

The turnout was 60.2% – lower, in the end, than the 1979 referendum.

***

The home rule flame was kept alive in the inter-referendum years by supporters in Scottish politics and civil society. From 1989 to 1995, the cross-party Scottish Constitutional Convention (SCC) produced reports that New Labour would largely defer to when crafting its devolution proposals.

The most effective recruiting sergeant for Scottish devolution, of course, was the Thatcher government.

Talk of a “parliament” in 1997 – as opposed to an “assembly” – reflected the rhetorical and practical development of the devolution argument.

That said, the bipartite plebiscite was a product of New Labour’s deliberations – and political anxieties.

The tax-varying question was, in effect, a concession to Conservative criticism. Michael Forsyth, the secretary of state for Scotland from 1995 to 1997, had coined the term “Tartan Tax” to refer to the SCC’s proposal that a Scottish parliament should have the power to vary income tax by 3 pence in the pound.

The Conservative attack line jarred with Blair’s determination to rid his party of its reputation for “tax and spend”. Furthermore, the proposal for a tax-raising parliament appeared to contradict New Labour’s now-totemic “no new Taxes” pledge. Gordon Brown, the shadow chancellor and MP for Dunfermline East, could not guarantee fiscal continuity for his own constituents.

The second question on tax-varying was crafted to neutralise this attack.

It was heavily criticised by supporters of the SCC’s work, who had consistently argued that a parliament without revenue-raising powers would be practically and politically inadequate – failing to correct Scotland’s democratic deficit.

It was also New Labour that insisted on the very need for a referendum as an expression of Scotland’s “settled will” in favour of a devolution scheme.

***

The official ‘Yes’ campaign, Scotland Forward (styled ‘Scotland FORward’), emerged from the political apparatus and culture of the SCC. It was supported by Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP.

The official ‘No’ campaign, Think Twice, was headed by Brian Monteith, an ally of Forsyth (who had lost his seat at the 1997 election). It argued that a parliament would amount to an expensive, unnecessary, Union-threatening layer of bureaucracy.

Campaigning was suspended between 31 August and 6 September, respectively the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.

William Hague, the Conservative Party leader, made private representations to Blair seeking to delay the simultaneous Scottish and Wales devolution referenda.

Hague wrote to Blair: “This inevitably means that the referendum campaigns will effectively close down, and only three days will then remain for the Scottish campaign.

“This cannot, in any respects, be regarded as satisfactory.

“I strongly feel that Parliament should be recalled next week so as to arrange to amend the [Referendums (Scotland and Wales) Act 1997] so as to effect a delay. With cross-party agreement this would be a quick and straightforward procedure.”

Blair rejected the idea, telling the Conservative leader that there were “serious practical difficulties”.

He added: “In any case the campaign has already been underway for a month and a half – longer than a general election campaign – and the issue of devolution has been under debate for many years in both Scotland and Wales.

“I do not believe that five days of suspended campaign really justifies the major upheaval that you suggest.”

***

Unlike the outcome of the 1979 referendum, the 1997 result – declared on 12 September – was unambiguous.

The campaign delivered an emphatic ‘Yes-Yes’ verdict.

In the end, all 32 local authority areas in the country voted in favour of a Scottish parliament and only two – Orkney and Dumfries and Galloway – decided against tax-varying powers.

Donald Dewar, the secretary of state for Scotland, said the result “exceeded all my expectations.”

He added: “The people have spoken – John Smith’s belief in the settled will of the Scottish people was truly justified last night.”

Dewar, the effective leader of the ‘Yes-Yes’ campaign, hailed the result as representing “a new voice in the United Kingdom for Scotland”.

Tom Devine, a historian and academic, referred to the referendum outcome as “the most significant development in Scottish political history since the Union of 1707”.

Blair declared that the era of “big, centralised government” was at an end.

The 1997 referendum, unlike the 1979 vote, was pre-legislative. The lack of opposition the subsequent 1998 Scotland Act faced in its passage through parliament was notable.

Dewar, in his capacity as secretary of state for Scotland, saw to the completion of John Smith’s “unfinished business”.

Addressing the House of Commons at the Scotland Bill’s second reading, Dewar declared: “The referendum was much criticised, and the subject of much hostility and doubt, even in my party, but it gave the country its chance to speak, and it was an example of trusting the people, of an exercise in direct democracy and of an occasion on which politicians practised what they preached.

“The people gave us a handsome majority, not in a blaze of razzmatazz but with a quiet determination that left no room for doubt that this is the settled will of the people.”

***

The Scotland Act 1998 begins: “There shall be a Scottish parliament.”

The first elections to the Scottish parliament were held in May 1999.

On 12 May, the Scottish parliament officially convened – or “re-convened” in the words of the mother of the new house and Scottish National Party (SNP) icon Winnie Ewing.

Dewar was elected as the inaugural first minister of Scotland on 13 May by his fellow MSPs, during an early session of the newly established Scottish parliament at its temporary home in the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh.

To form a stable administration, Labour entered into a coalition partnership with the Liberal Democrats. The agreement, reached shortly before the vote, created a comfortable majority in the new parliament.