The Scottish Liberal Democrats were formed on March 3rd, 1988 from the merger of the Scottish Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party in Scotland. We are a State Party of the Liberal Democrats, a federal political party that organises across Great Britain.

We are a democratic party. Our members elect our leaders and office-bearers, choose our candidates, write and approve our polices and campaign to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society here in Scotland.

There is a long history of Liberalism in Glasgow. The city’s politics were dominated by Liberals, Liberal Unionists and Conservatives throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Notable Liberals from Glasgow include former UK Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, born in the city who's farther James served on the Glasgow Town Council and also as Lord Provost of Glasgow. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908. Since the creation of the Labour Party, Liberals were quickly replaced as the main political forces in the city after the end of the First World War.

At the formation of the SDP and the alliance between the Liberal party and SDP, Glasgow was the home to a famous by-election victory in 1982. Roy Jenkins one of the “gang of four” who founded the SDP stood as the by-election candidate for Glasgow Hillhead that was previously a Conservative seat. The win for a new party beating the incumbent Conservatives and Labour was highly reported in the national press.

City of Glasgow district council was formed in 1974 and at the following election in 1977 saw Robert Brown the first Liberal elected in Rutherglen South. That began an uninterrupted Liberal representation in Glasgow till 2017. This included a record 5 Scottish Liberal Democrat councillors elected in the 2007 election.

There are currently no Glasgow Liberal Democrat councillors but we continue to campaigning all year round for all residents of the city with the hope to return a Liberal voice to the council chambers in 2027.