Tommy Sheridan could be joined by other Socialist MSPs

The Scottish Socialist Party believes it will be a "new political force" in the second Holyrood parliament.

The left-wingers, led by Tommy Sheridan, were tipped to take up to 10 regional list seats.

At the end of counting the party managed to secure six regional list seats, up five from the last parliament.

The success forms part of a major shake-up of establishment politics north of the border.

Mr Sheridan was the party's lone representative following the election four years ago when he became an MSP for the region of Glasgow.

We were ridiculed and scoffed at by the media at the beginning of this campaign for saying we would make gains Tommy Sheridan

The 39-year-old political firebrand is the national convener of the party which was formed only a matter of months before the 1999 poll.

As the story of Scotland's 2003 election unfolded, Mr Sheridan declared: "What's happened tonight in Scotland is that a new political force has been formed - and that force believes that the wealth of Scotland belongs to the people of Scotland.

"In this election the people of Scotland have shown that they believe in trade unions, fair pay, and redistribution of wealth - and we stand for all of those things.

"The people of Scotland are demanding this democratically.

"We have got lots of money, the top 100 richest people in Scotland have �10,000m between them. We already have massive wealth in this country and we should be able to redistribute that wealth."

He added: "We were ridiculed and scoffed at by the media at the beginning of this campaign for saying we would make gains.

"I said we would get four and if we get that, that will be great, if we get more, then that will be a spectacular advance."

Changing establishment

One party with a relatively small number of MSPs in 1999 played its part during the first parliament.

When the Liberal Democrats won 12 seats in 1999 they became the coalition partners of the Labour Party, which had the largest number of MSPs but failed to have enough to take overall control.

Mr Sheridan, who retained his list seat this time, said after winning four years ago "sometimes you have to join the establishment in order to change it".

Tommy Sheridan has been outspoken for more than a decade

The former Labour Party member caused a stir from the start, when he swore the oath of allegiance to the Queen, required of all MSPs, with a clenched fist raised in order to signal his protest.

And he did that only after declaring that "supreme sovereignty lies with the people of Scotland rather than an unelected monarchy".

At the end of 2000 his campaign to have warrant sales and poindings abolished paid off when his members' bill made it through parliament.

But other parliamentary efforts failed. In June last year, Mr Sheridan - who has been jailed three times in the name of various campaigns - was "furious" after MSPs on the all-party education committee rejected his plans for free school meals for every pupil in Scotland.

The SSP will not find out its total number of representatives until later on Friday when the all of the regional list votes are declared.