LABOUR could be left with just one MP in Scotland – Willie Bain, who is defending Glasgow North-East – according to a new poll.

The survey, by TNS, saw the SNP up two points to 54 per cent, and put Labour down two points to 22 per cent. According to the ScotlandVotes website, the change could see the SNP win all but two seats in Scotland.

However, the poll of 1,003 adults in Scotland also found that nearly a third of voters are still undecided.

Support for both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats remain at the same levels as in the previous TNS poll. Ukip were up one point to two per cent.

Bookmaker William Hill slashed the odds of Labour losing all their seats at the election to 3-1. In 2010, the odds of Labour losing all their seats in Scotland were 1,000-1.

The SNP’s General Election co-ordinator Angus Robertson said: “This poll is yet another welcome indication that the momentum in this campaign continues to be with the SNP.

“More and more people are putting their trust in the SNP to make Scotland’s voice heard at Westminster, end the cuts and stand up for progressive politics across the UK.

“While this poll is welcome, we are taking absolutely nothing for granted and will continue to work as hard as we can to win the trust of people across Scotland.

The news came as Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls delivered a speech in Glasgow warning Scots that a vote for the SNP was a vote for “fiscal austerity”.

“The SNP plans mean longer austerity, bigger cuts, more debt and less money for public services than Labour’s plans. Not fiscal autonomy but extended fiscal austerity” said Balls.

“Because, of course, ending austerity isn’t the SNP’s real priority. SNP MPs aren’t going to the House of Commons to fight poverty, they are going to re-fight the referendum.”

Balls was introduced by Jim Murphy, who claimed that the SNP were using the General Election to “stoke up discontent and division so they can push for a second referendum”.

Both Balls and Murphy referred to a video of Stewart Hosie during his campaign to be the SNP deputy leader in which he claimed that the government rejecting the SNP’s plans for full fiscal responsibility would upset a lot of people who voted No.

Murphy said: “It is the Nationalists’ clear intention to pursue a second referendum sooner rather than later if they are given the opportunity.

“They would consign Scotland to years of deepening divisions while the needs and priorities of working-class Scots are set aside for another day, another year or indeed another generation.”

The video of Hosie formed part of Labour’s “secret dossier” of SNP candidates talking about independence that was released yesterday.

But the dossier was widely derided by Wings Over Scotland and SNP activists online. Scottish Labour were shown to have taken statements out of context in an attempt to strengthen their case. One quote from Paisley candidate Mhairi Black deliberately misinterpreted an answer she gave to an STV interview, to make it look like she was calling for a referendum as a result of this election.

Hosie rubbished Scottish Labour’s claim, saying: “The position couldn’t be clearer, on the basis of the SNP’s manifesto published last week. This election is about making Scotland stronger at Westminster by electing a team of SNP MPs – it is not about independence or another referendum, which are matters for the people of Scotland to decide.”

Scottish Labour believe there is political capital in talking about the referendum and full fiscal autonomy.

Earlier in the day, Sturgeon had accused the Westminster parties of “pushing the panic button” and trying to sow “fear and division” among the electorate.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she said: “It’s no secret that I want Scotland to be an independent country.

“I argued for that in the referendum last year and people in Scotland chose not to become independent at this time.” She went on to say that this election was not about independence but about representing Scotland’s interests.

This message is clearly getting through to voters, with 42 per cent of people polled by TNS saying that they could see Sturgeon as working “to get the best deal for Scotland at Westminster”.


JUST 23 per cent of English voters think it would be fair to exclude the SNP from government, a new poll has found. It comes just after Theresa May said that an SNP influence in government would be “the worst crisis since the abdication”, though her views do not seem to be widely shared.

More people across the UK would rather see a Labour/SNP coalition government than a Conservative, Democratic Unionist Party and Ukip arrangement, with five per cent more women supporting a Labour/SNP coalition.

The survey, by Opinium, also showed that 59 per cent of voters in Scotland think the current labelling of the SNP as “dangerous” is putting the Union in jeopardy.