Replicated across Scotland the latest polling would see the nationalists take all but two seats
The SNP surge continues according to polling published today, which replicated across Scotland would see the nationalists take all but two seats north of the border.
The data, compiled by TNS, puts the SNP on 54 per cent, up 2 percentage points since the last poll. Labour has dropped two points to 22 per cent. The Conservatives and Lib Dems remain steady on 13 per cent and 6 per cent respectively, whilst the Greens fall one percentage point to 2 per cent and UKIP go up 1 point to 2 per cent.
According to the Electoral Calculus website, replicated at the General Election the poll would mean Labour losing all but one of the 41 seats they won in 2010, with the SNP taking 57 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the Commons. The Lib Dems would be reduced to 1 seat while the Conservatives would lose the single seat they currently hold.
With 10 days to go until polling day, 29 per cent of those who said they were certain to vote had not decided which party they would vote for. Asked which politician they felt would secure the best deal for Scotland in Westminster, almost half (42 per cent) said Nicola Sturgeon, compared to just 8 per cent who said Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy. At 7 per cent, more people said David Cameron would get the best deal than the 3 per cent who said Ed Miliband would.
Asked which was their preferred outcome, 35 per cent of respondents said a Labour government of some description, compared to 16 per cent who said some form of Conservative administration.
Digging deeper, 21 per cent said they would prefer the idea of a Labour minority or coalition government, compared to 14 per cent who would prefer a majority Labour government.
Amongst SNP supporters, a quarter (25 per cent) said they would prefer a Labour-led coalition government, compared to 14 per cent who would prefer a minority Labour administration. Just 9 per cent wanted a majority Labour government.
Among those planning to vote Labour next month, half (26 per cent) wanted a Labour minority or coalition government more than an outright Labour majority.
The findings come as the Democratic Unionist Party, who’s MPs could prove decisive in determining who gets the keys to Downing Street, has warned David Cameron against the dangerous game he is play on the SNP. Writing for the Guardian today, the party’s deputy leader Nigel Dodds warns that those who support the UK must not be provoked into making reckless statements:
“Take the ‘right’ of SNP MPs to vote in the Commons, or the supposed lack of legitimacy that stems from it. No one who purports to be a unionist can question it. They have the right. That’s why we fought and won the referendum: to enshrine the rights of Scots to go on sending representatives, fully equal to every other, to Westminster. Glib and lazy talk about SNP MPs somehow not being as entitled to vote in every division in the Commons, as any other British MP, simply fuels nationalist paranoia.”
Calling on those in Scotland wanting to stay within the UK to consider voting tactically, he concludes:
“Since no one ascends to or clings on to office by risking the country, this election calls for something beyond partisanship. In Scotland, pro-union voters should, just this once, give very serious consideration to voting for the unionist best placed to win their seat. Brave voices such as Norman Tebbit have risked tribal discontent to urge this, and I urge it too. The SNP is trying to get out of England the answer it couldn’t get out of Scotland last year. No one who believes in Britain should assist them, least of all in England.”
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
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18 Responses to “SNP on 54%, Labour on 22% in Scotland”
Robert
I do not see to many voting Tories either, so maybe that’s the issue people see labour as Tory lite.
Gerschwin
Not in Scotland, not since Mrs T made them fabulously wealthy and turned their dump of a country into a viable economy but you know how it is – good deeds going unpunished and all the rest.
AlanGiles
The reason for this Scottish slump can be given in two words: JIM MURPHY – an old Blairite lickspittle. Even the original isn’t popular any longer – his mini-me even less so
Leon Wolfeson
Sure, FPTP is a problem.
But I was actually asking if you had a specific issue with the way the polls were conducted which you thought was giving biased results – for example, it’s a known bias factor that polls using landlines will skew Tory.
birdie
This is my constituency, i’ve been a bit confused how an area with such clear poverty and decay wouldn’t jump at the chance for change. That being said the area i live has a high percentage of older voters who may stick with traditional labour as its how they have always voted. Which may help explain why things don’t seem to change up here.