Ahead of the Scottish Labour Party conference kicking off in Glasgow today (Friday), the SNP has outlined key polling data that makes grim reading for current Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar.
Recent polling data reveals:
- If Scottish Labour scored in an election tomorrow what they are currently polling, it would be the lowest share of the vote they have received in any Holyrood or Westminster election since before the advent of universal suffrage. Their 18% of the constituency vote (Norstat: Sunday Times, February) is four points below the 22% share that put them in third place in 2021.
- Hardly anyone in Scotland thinks Keir Starmer is a good prime minister. Just one in six say he is doing a good job (Norstat: Sunday Times, February). His 17% is lower even than Boris Johnson, who scored an average of 22% as prime minister with the same pollster (five polls, June 2019 to March 2021).
- More than half – 53% – of Scots who voted Labour disapprove of the Labour government’s record in office (YouGov: February).
- Anas Sarwar is a less popular choice as First Minister than the leader that led them to their biggest Holyrood defeat. Only 16% of the public choose Anas Sarwar as the best First Minister of Scotland (Survation: True North, January). That’s well below Iain Gray’s score of 27% at the time of Labour’s 2011 rout (YouGov, April 2011).
- Labour is bleeding voters to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, who are poised to overtake them. The most recent Westminster poll (Norstat: Sunday Times, February) shows Labour on 18% to Reform on 17%, with Labour trending down and Reform trending up. More than half of the voters in the poll that had switched to Nigel Farage’s party since the last General Election had switched from Labour.
Angus Robertson, SNP campaign director for the 2026 Holyrood election, said:
“Labour under Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer are in complete disarray.
“They are now locked in a battle for second place with Nigel Farage as the impact of their broken promises continues to haunt them.
“Whether on Grangemouth, energy bills or their promises to pensioners, Labour has broken so many of the promises that they used to get elected – all while Anas Sarwar has stood shoulder to shoulder with Keir Starmer.
“And with every broken promise more of Anas Sarwar’s credibility has seeped away.
“Ahead of his conference, Anas Sarwar is under real pressure – he has broken promise after promise and shown himself completely incapable of standing up to Keir Starmer’s government which treats Scotland as an afterthought.
“With their poll ratings plummeting, it would be no surprise to see MSPs and conference delegates demanding a new direction in the Labour leadership.
“And while Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer flail from disaster to disaster, under John Swinney’s leadership the SNP is resolutely focused on the issues that matter to the people of Scotland – investing in and improving our NHS, taking action to tackle the cost of living by bringing back universal winter heating support and supporting jobs and economic growth.”
