The Scottish Conservative Party (officially the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party), often referred to as the Scottish Tories, is the part of the British Conservative Party that operates in Scotland. It was established in 1965, when the previously separate Unionist Party was merged into the Conservative Party of England and Wales, to form the basis of the modern UK Conservative Party (which at that time did not organise independently in Northern Ireland). The Unionist Party, in alliance with a small number of Liberal Unionist and National Liberal politicians, had been the dominant force in Scottish politics until the late 1950s. From the early 1960s that role was taken by the Labour Party.