Latest poll gives the SNP a 21-point lead over Scottish Labour

YouGov still doesn’t have much good news for Scottish Labour: their latest polling shows them 21 points behind the SNP.

This poll puts the Nationalists on 48% of the vote and Labour on 27%. If translated into seats, Electoral Calculus estimates Labour would lose 30 seats to the SNP (down to 11), while the SNP would shoot up to 48 seats (they currently have 6).

This means, according to YouGov, Scottish Labour are in almost exactly the same place they were back in December:

SNP 48% (+1), Lab 27% (NC), Con 15% (-1), Lib Dem 4% (+1)

So despite the fact Scottish Labour have gained a new leader and announced a raft of policies there’s been little change in people’s voting intentions.

To analyse why this might be, YouGov also took a look at how voters viewed both SNP and Scottish Labour leaders.

They found that 64% of people thought Nicola Sturgeon was doing ‘well’, while only 33% said the same for Jim Murphy. Unfortunately for Murphy, 43% think he’s doing ‘badly’ but only 14% think the same as Sturgeon. Interestingly, a similar number (22% for Sturgeon and 24% for Murphy) said they didn’t know how the leader in question was doing, indicating that there’s still some scope to make an impact on these voters for both parties.

However, only 18% of everyone asked think Scottish Labour would do the best job of representing them in Westminster and of those on course to vote Labour, 21% think the SNP would be better representatives.

Once again, this poll offers a clear message to Scottish Labour – the battle to save seats in May is going to be an uphill struggle.