THE SNP have nearly doubled their lead over Scottish Labour in the past month, according to the latest poll from TNS.
More than 52 per cent of Scots plan on voting SNP at the General Election on May 7, an increase from 46 per cent last month. Just 24 per cent of Scots will now back Labour, down from 30 per cent. The SNP lead now stands at 28 points, up from 16 in March. The poll was taken after the UK-wide leaders' debates but before last week’s Scottish leaders' debates.
During an election event in Glenrothes, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy admitted in an interview with Sky news that it looked like the SNP were going to win a lot of seats.
Tom Costley, the head of TNS Scotland, said the poll suggested that the SNP were winning over disaffected Labour voters: “The official election campaign has got off to a great start for the SNP, undoubtedly helped by Nicola Sturgeon’s strong performance in the UK-wide TV debate. Not only has Labour’s hopes of a recovery in support been dashed but, even worse, it appears to have gone backwards.
“The SNP seems to be building on the momentum which they carried forward from the independence referendum, while Jim Murphy is still struggling to win back Labour’s lost supporters. Indeed, the latest poll shows some evidence that the growth in SNP support is mainly coming from disaffected Labour supporters.”
Support for the Conservatives was at 13 per cent, down one point, the Liberal Democrats were up three points to six per cent and the Scottish Greens dipped by one point to three per cent.
If the figures in the TNS poll were converted to seats, it could leave the SNP with 56, Labour with two and the Liberal Democrats with one.
The pollsters did caution not to get carried away. These results come at the beginning of the official election campaign and do not include the 29 per cent of people who say that they are yet to make up their minds.
The poll also showed strong support for the SNP among young voters, with 71 per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds for the SNP, compared with 57 per cent for 35- to 54-year-olds and 40 per cent for those aged 55 and over.
TNS asked their sample of 968 people which political parties they would like to see working together in the event of a hung parliament. By far the most popular option was a Labour-SNP coalition, which had the support of 25 per cent of voters, including nearly a third of all Labour voters.
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “How Scotland votes will decide whether the UK has another five years of failed Tory austerity or gets a Labour government on the side of working people.
“If this poll is repeated on election day, it will be good news for the SNP but great news for the Tories.”
“A vote for anyone other than Labour makes it more likely the Tories will be the largest party across the UK and that David Cameron will return to Downing Street by accident.
“The only way to get a Labour government that will invest in our NHS, get young people back into work and call time on exploitative zero-hours contracts is to vote for Labour.”
The SNP’s General Election campaign director Angus Robertson said: “This poll is another very welcome indication that more and more people across Scotland are putting their trust in the SNP – and our message of delivering jobs and growth in place of Westminster cuts has huge appeal."
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