Early Life
He began in politics as a member of the Glasgow University Labour Club, before deciding to help form the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association (GUSNA) in 1927. MacCormick was often known by his nickname "King John", which he said came from a heckle during a debate he was participating in when upon a question from the floor whether a devolved Scotland would retain the monarchy or be a republic someone interjected and said that, "no, it will be a kingdom and John MacCormick will be our king."
He then helped to form the National Party of Scotland in 1928 before leading them into a merger with the Scottish Party in 1934 to found the modern Scottish National Party (SNP). He resigned from the party in 1942 following his failure to persuade the party to adopt a devolutionist stance rather than supporting all out Scottish independence and due to the victory of Douglas Young over his favoured candidate William Power for the chairmanship of the party. Along with a number of dissatisfied delegates to that year's SNP conference he established a Scottish Convention (not to be confused with a 1990s of the same name to campaign for home rule for Scotland and later formed the Scottish Covenant Association.
Later MacCormick also took the decision to join the Liberal Party as he viewed them as being the party most closely allied to his devolutionist ambitions for Scotland.
He stood for parliament at Inverness unsuccessfully on three occasions, in 1931 as a candidate for the National Party of Scotland, in 1935 as a candidate for the Scottish National Party and in 1945 as a candidate for the Liberal Party. In 1937 he was the unsuccessful Scottish National Party candidate in the Glasgow Hillhead by-election.
His last attempt to enter parliament came at the 1959 General Election, when he stood for the Liberal Party at Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, again finishing second.
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