The two largest parties in the UK Parliament are the Conservative and Unionist Party — usually just "the Conservatives" or informally "the Tories" — and the Labour Party. Between them they have provided every Prime Minister since 1922. The Liberal Democrats were formed in 1988 from a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party and are the largest of the smaller parties at Westminster.
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In Scotland the Scottish National Party (SNP) campaigns for Scottish independence and is the largest party in the Scottish Parliament. In Wales, Plaid Cymru plays a similar role. In Northern Ireland the main parties — the DUP, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and the Alliance Party — split largely along unionist and nationalist lines. The Green Party of England and Wales has steadily increased its representation at council and parliamentary level.
You may be asked which party is the official opposition (whichever has the second-most seats in the Commons), or what SNP stands for (Scottish National Party).
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