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The Crofters' Party - 1885 to 1892 -The first British independent common people's political party
D.W.Crowley, Scottish Historical Review, Volume 35, 1956
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At the 1885 and 1886 General Elections a group of candidates who described themselves as representatives of the crofters contested some of the Highland constituencies of north-west Scotland with almost complete success. The group had varying degrees of links to the Highland Land League which had been established to independently promote the interests of crofters and their specific land rights. The League had been founded in 1882 by a number of professional men from the Scottish cities but formed its branches very largely from among the crofters themselves, and these branches spread throughout the Highlands in the next three years. It played a prominent part in the land movement and eventually brought forward and sponsored the Crofters' candidates.
Although the Crofter MP group and the Land League were to be short-lived, they aroused considerable national attention at the time, and are of some significance in the development of British political life. The Crofter MP group constituted what may be regarded as the first British independent common people's political party, and in many respects may be considered a precursor of the British Labour Party.