Scottish Constitutional Convention
1989-1995 cross-party body that drew up the blueprint for Scottish devolution.
When all 17 Labour MSPs backed John Swinney's right-to-decide motion on 22 September 2026, they echoed the Scottish Constitutional Convention, where Labour figures signed the 1989 Claim of Right on Scottish sovereignty yet delivered devolution, not independence.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Scottish Constitutional Convention
Mentioned in: Marra's MSPs vote for right to decide
UK Local Elections 2026Background
The Scottish Constitutional Convention was a cross-party and civic body that drew up the blueprint for Scottish devolution between 1989 and 1995. It first met in the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh on 30 March 1989, where the Claim of Right for Scotland, accepting the sovereignty of the Scottish people, was signed.
Under its executive chairman, Canon Kenyon Wright, it published its final plan, Scotland's Parliament, Scotland's Right, on 30 November 1995. That document became the basis for the devolution proposals put to Scottish voters in the 1997 referendum and for the Parliament that followed.
The Convention is the historical proof that a unionist party can sign a statement of Scottish sovereignty and steer it towards devolution rather than independence, a precedent Scottish Labour's 2026 vote revived.
A sovereignty pledge once led to devolution
Scottish Labour's vote on 22 September 2026 for a motion asserting Scotland's right to decide its future had a clear ancestor. At the Convention's opening meeting in 1989, every serving Scottish Labour and Liberal Democrat MP except Tam Dalyell put their names to the Claim of Right, accepting the sovereignty of the Scottish people.
The Convention then spent six years turning that principle into a plan for a devolved Parliament, not a separate state. Labour under Michael Marra has placed a similar bet: endorse the principle, which costs little while Westminster holds the legal key to any referendum, without committing to a referendum itself.