The SNP’s Polling Headaches

If you thought the party conference season was over, think again. The SNP are this week meeting for the party’s annual get together in Aberdeen.

They do so against a difficult political backdrop with the police investigating the party’s financial affairs, the loss of the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, the defection of one of their MPs to the Conservatives and no viable route to achieve their dream of independence.

To make matters worse for the SNP, a poll by Savanta for the Scotsman suggests that when it comes to voting intentions for a UK Parliamentary election, the SNP’s lead over Labour, which was 21 points last June, has been completely eradicated.

The poll puts the SNP and Labour on level pegging on 35% each, with the Conservatives on 19%, the Liberal Democrats on 6% and other parties on 4%. The National newspaper meanwhile reports  that with those who are undecided not included, 49% of those polled would support Scottish independence if a further referendum were held, compared to 51% saying they would vote no.

UK wide meanwhile, the Conservatives will be fearful at what appears to have been a failure to get a polling bounce following theirs and Labour’s conferences.

According to Opinium’s poll for The Observer Labour now have a 16-point lead. It puts the party on 44%, up 2 points since last week. The Conservatives are down 1 point on 28%.

When it comes to headline voting intentions, YouGov’s latest poll for The Times, published on Friday, puts Labour on 47%, up 2 points from the week before, with the Conservatives unchanged on 24%.  

With Rishi Sunak having used his conference speech to pitch himself as the ‘change’ candidate for Prime Minister going into an election year, just 25% of those questioned by YouGov believe Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party represent ‘change’. In contrast, 47% said the same about Keir Starmer and the Labour Party.

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