There is widespread support for another referendum; now Labour must persuade the electorate that May is not a proxy vote for independence
Scottish Labour faces a double bombshell this morning, with new polling not only suggesting near wipe-out for the party in May, but showing that a majority of people now support independence.
The data, collected by Survation for the Labour-supporting Daily Record newspaper, has found that with undecideds and won’t says taken out, 51 per cent of people in Scotland would vote for independence compared to 49 per cent who would reject such a proposition. This is the first poll to put independence in the lead since September’s referendum.
More worryingly still for the pro-union parties, 60 per cent of respondents expressed support for another referendum being held within the next 10 years, despite declarations in September that the last vote had settled the issue ‘for a generation’.
Meanwhile, in the week that Ed Miliband ruled out any coalition agreement with the SNP following the election, today’s poll puts the SNP on 47 per cent, up two percentage points from Survation’s poll last month. Labour are on 26 per cent (-1), the Conservatives are up one point to 16 per cent, and the Lib Dems are on four per cent (down one point) with no changes on the seven per cent of voters who plan to vote for another party.
According to the calculations, if replicated across the country, the SNP would secure 53 of Scotland’s 59 seats with Labour slumped to just five MPs north of the border and the Lib Dems losing all but one of its seats.
Seeking to move attention away from independence and towards the General Election, Scottish Labour’s lead Jim Murphy has once again responded to this poll by telling voters that a vote for any party but Labour will lead to a Conservative government. He concludes:
“There is only one party across the UK that is big enough to stop the Tories being the largest party and that’s Labour.
“Now that it’s 100 per cent certain that there won’t be a Labour and SNP coalition there’s only one way to beat the Tories.
“A vote for anyone other than Scottish Labour risks the Tories being the biggest party and David Cameron returning to Downing Street by accident.
“That would be a terrible outcome for Scotland but it’s what could happen if this poll is repeated on election day.”
Unsurprisingly, the SNP have welcomed the results. The party’s leader at Westminster Angus Robertson has concluded it ‘shows that support to give Scotland a strong voice at Westminster by returning a team of SNP MPs to stand up for Scottish interests remains very high’. He continued:
“By contrast, Labour continue to pay the price for being on the same side of so many arguments as the Tories, including their joint commitment to imposing even more spending cuts.
“We take nothing for granted and will work extremely hard to win people’s trust on May 7 so that we can deliver jobs and growth in place of Westminster cuts, power for Scotland and the non-renewal of useless and expensive Trident nuclear weapons.”
Speaking exclusively to Left Foot Forward, Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University has noted that for Labour to gain a recovery would require three things:
- Showing to voters in Scotland that Westminster is relevant to their lives;
- Persuading voters that May is not a proxy vote for or against independence; and
- Gaining traction for its vision for a fairer society to counteract Nicola Sturgeon’s campaigning efforts in this direction.
Whether or not this can all be achieved between now and polling day remains to be seen.
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward. Follow him on TwitterA
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
127 Responses to “A double bombshell for Scottish Labour”
Guest
People trying to make irrevocable changes based on separatism? Why would that be a problem now.
You’re whining because you lost the referendum. You don’t trust Labour, you can’t speak for everyone of course – but keep wailing away at that nasty democracy, they don’t “deserve” to exist, you don’t “know” if they can recover, etc.
Guest
Yes, let’s talk about Alex Salmond.
Leon Wolfeson
“Labour under Miliband is distinctly to the left of Blair.”
Only if you utterly ignore their actual policies.
Labour will change a few things about the NHS, some good some bad.
They will NOT change sanctions or abolish the UC – they’ll move the chairs on “targeting”, very possibly to a nastier configuration.
The bedroom tax is about all that they’re offering. Meanwhile, Reeves is going to the right of the Tories against poorer people.
And the party’s immigration moves right…
That you try and conflate the Greens and the Left is silly. they’re distinctly different parties (as can be seen anywhere with PR). Moreover, there is NO UK-wide party of the left, even remotely so.
You’re for keeping neoliberal austerity. That ain’t left wing.
Richard Honey
Leon “You’re for keeping neoliberal austerity” er no I’m not. Rachel Reeves is not moving to the right of the Tories. Anyone who knows her work as a constituency MP would know how passionately and tirelessly she campaigns on behalf of those in and out of work. She merely responded to a journalists question about whether Labour is ‘the party of welfare’, that tired Tory trope that needs nailing. Amelia Gentleman, the interviewer, has since tweeted to confirm this and to defend Rachel. You can moan all you like about Labour (I have my moment too!) but right now we have a choice on May 7 and I know where my energies are going up to that date. Of course if the Tories win then the left will say Labour were too right wing, the right they were too left wing. We can move to that debate if and when, but hopefully that won’t be necessary.
Ken Bell
The Lib-Lab pact was something that everyone was happy with; besides it wasn’t a coalition.
That scrawny bean cruncher that Labour has put in charge of its branch office up here tells people that Labour has rejected a coalition, but the SNP has never offered one. They have said from the start that the deal will be supply and confidence.
That’s all that Labour’s troughers can have. They will take it because all they care about is office.