Labour would be forgiven for reaching for the paracetamol this morning.
Labour would be forgiven for reaching for the paracetamol this morning
The Labour Party is facing a further headache following new polling that has revealed that the SNP are now ahead of the party in voting intentions for both Holyrood and Westminster.
According to new data collected by Survation and commissioned by the SNP, asked how they would vote in the constituency vote for the Scottish Parliament, when the undecided are taken out, the SNP now lead Labour by 15 per cent, with the nationalists on 42 per cent (down 3 per cent on the 2011 election results) whilst Labour are on 27 per cent (down 5 per cent).
On the regional list vote, again, the SNP lead Labour with the Scots Nats on 37 per cent (-7 per cent), and Labour on 27 per cent (+1 per cent).
Labour will however be most concerned about the figures on voting intentions for Westminster where the SNP now lead Labour on 34 per cent (+14 per cent from 2010) whilst Labour are on 32 per cent (-10 per cent). This represents a 12 per cent swing from the SNP to Labour which George Eaton in the New Statesman has argued would be “deadly” for Ed Miliband if it were to be reflected in the election next year.
Interestingly, on Westminster voting intentions, the Conservatives north of the border, according to the poll, now stand on 18 per cent, up 1 per cent from 2010, a reflection of the good campaign that Ruth Davidson is widely believed to have had during the independence referendum as leader of the Scottish Conservatives.
It could be that this is a rogue poll, but none the less, a combination of the SNP’s membership trebling since the independence referendum and the boost the party will undoubtedly get with Nicola Sturgeon taking the leadership in November now makes it look highly likely that the nationalists will successfully take some seats from Labour next May on the mantra of holding the UK parties ‘feet to the fire’ when it comes to further powers being devolved to Holyrood.
Given Labour’s continued reliance on its rump of Scottish Labour MPs, such news will have many at Labour HQ worried about the rapid erosion in its once heartland seats.
This is compounded by a similar pattern emerging in Wales where Roger Scully, Professor of Political Science in the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, has noted that Welsh Labour has seen a considerable decline in support over the past 18-24 months. As he has explained:
“In the four polls conducted in 2012, Labour’s general election vote share was always at or above 50 per cent. Both the last two have had it below 40 per cent.”
The polling comes following what was widely believed to have been a lacklustre performance from Ed Miliband in his speech to the party conference last week with the icing on the difficult to swallow cake being today’s YouGov poll putting the Conservatives ahead of Labour on UK wide voting intentions.
And for information, YouGov have also revealed that more people would want to go for a drink with Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Theresa May than Ed Miliband.
Labour would be forgiven for wanting to grab for the paracetamol this morning.
81 Responses to “Labour’s headaches get worse”
Guest
Yes, you do refuse to see.
And of course you’d blame the people who you’d told they’d be ruined if they dare spoke a word of it in public. While limited liability restricted your losses to what you hadn’t got out. Usual boardroom techniques.
The issue is very much the NHS budget – it was grossly too low. It was only moderately low, and the recent disorganisation has smashed it’s results back brutally to allow you to cherry-pick services.
Guest
Vote UKIP, get someone who wasn’t even good enough to be a banker, get a disaster for the country.
Guest
No, that’s your excuse for trying to destroy debate about your views.
UKIP have a lot of far right supporters, like you.
I’m sure you want to cut lots of things – welfare, the NHS (only for you and your ideological friends), the poor, the Other…other people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I am not a fool. I will hold your views up to the light.
If you complain, I am doing it right.
madasafish
A really original remark – I’ve had my name for 14 years so you might realise I’ve heard it all before..
Thomtids
All Currencies are Fiat today. There is still a political price to pay for printing money hence Briwn and Balls went for the mechanism of doing so through the private sector. Brown effectively disarmed the supervision infrastructure, encouraging reckless casino -style banking. But Brown was the Chancellor of the Exchequer or Prime Minister for the whole time through which the situation that occurred was put in place, activated, grown and, finally, destroyed the British Banking system.
Labour did it, Mister!
Democracy has been being stolen for many years by all the historic Parties.