THE SNP and Nicola Sturgeon have come out on top with voters in a new poll which shows half of Scots are happy with the job the First Minister is doing.
Research has found the SNP is still the most popular party in Scotland, with 38% of respondents to a recent survey saying they would back the party if a General Election was held tomorrow.
That is compared with 24% who would back Scottish Labour, 18% who would vote for the Scottish Conservatives and 5% who would vote for the LibDems, research carried out by BMG on behalf of The Herald has found. Some 4% of respondents would back the Greens.
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Douglas Ross (below) has watched over a plunge in the Tories’ popularity as just 17% of Scots said they were satisfied with the job he is doing, compared with 44% who were not – the lowest approval rating for a political leader in Scotland.
Anas Sarwar was the only politician other than Sturgeon to have more people approve of his leadership than disapprove – 26% said they were satisfied with the Labour leader compared with 23% who said they were not.
The survey also showed 47% of those asked backed Scottish independence while 53% were for staying in the Union.
And the research suggests Scottish voters are more pro-EU now than before Brexit with 65% of those surveyed saying they would vote to re-join the EU compared with 35% who were against the idea.
At the Brexit referendum in 2016, 62% of Scots voted to remain and 38% voted to leave the EU.
BMG surveyed 1012 Scottish voters over the age of 16 between March 25 and 31 for the poll.
Leader of the UK Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer, had a satisfaction rating of 27% and dissatisfaction of 28%.
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Robert Struthers, Head of Polling at BMG said: “Our polling shows tentative signs of a slight dip in support for the SNP. However, it remains to be seen whether this trend will be borne out over time.
“Although still comfortably the most popular political party in Scotland, if you compare results to that of one year ago, the SNP's support has fallen back somewhat. Looking at general election voting intentions, our polling suggests support has fallen back by some 6 percentage points in the space of a year - figures that might make some in the SNP a little nervous.”
He added that the findings would “put a spring in Anas Sarwar’s step” as they were “indicative of a slow but steady reversal of Labour's recent fortunes in Scotland, up around 6 points on a year ago when looking at support at a Westminster level.”
SNP Deputy Leader, Keith Brown said: "Poll after poll shows the people of Scotland trust and support the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon – a party and First Minister doing everything possible with Holyrood’s current powers to support them in especially challenging times.
"In contrast, it’s not hard to see why the Tories and Labour are doing so badly - their arrogant denial of Scottish democracy and prioritising of the ever growing corrupt Westminster system, means they grow more and more out-of-touch with the people of Scotland with each day that passes.
"The people of Scotland know they deserve better than the damaging impact of Westminster control and how it is failing families across the country - especially at the moment, with a UK Government not remotely stepping up to protect households facing a cost of living crisis. A vote for the SNP on May 5th is an opportunity to send a message that Scotland demands better than Boris Johnson and the broken Westminster system."
A Scottish Conservatives spokesman said: "We heard predictions last year that Labour would overtake us. We ended up winning 100,000 more votes while Labour went backwards again, just as they have at every Holyrood election. We're confident that the same pattern will happen again this year.
"In local by-elections since last May, we're only a few hundred votes behind the SNP, while Labour trail in a very distant third.
"The Scottish Conservatives are the only party strong enough to beat the SNP in councils all over Scotland and deliver on people's local priorities."
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