Labour support increases in Scotland as SNP backing slips, reveals new poll
Support for Labour has increased while backing for the SNP has dropped since the start of the campaign, a new poll suggests.
The poll by Survation, commissioned by the Sunday Post, found that once undecided voters were stripped out Scottish Labour were on 25%, up eight points from a similar poll on April 23.
The SNP are on 40% (down three points) while the Tories are on 27% (down one point) and the Lib Dems are on 6% (down three points).
Analysis by the Scotland Votes seat predictor suggested that the SNP would lose ten seats, the Sunday Post reported.
This would leave the SNP with 46 seats (down from 56), while the Tories would secure seven (up from one), Labour three (up from one) and the Lib Dems three (up from one).
The poll showed that 11% of voters are undecided, down from 18% in April.
Survation carried out the survey of 1024 Scots between May 31 and June 2.
On the issue of tactical voting respondents were asked if they would consider voting for a party or candidate that is not their first choice in order to stop a party or candidate they do not like from winning.
A total of 44% said Yes, 34% said No and 22% were not sure.
The poll also looked at the Scottish independence question.
It found that 54% of respondents would vote No in another independence referendum while 46% would back Yes.
However, 40% said that they were more likely to support independence if another Tory government were elected.
Meanwhile, 14% said this would make them less likely to back independence while 38.5% said it would make no difference and the rest didn't know.
An SNP spokesman said: "This poll shows that only the SNP is strong enough to beat the Tories in this election, and with polls narrowing across the UK, the result in Scotland may well determine the size of Theresa May's majority
"As we have seen during this campaign, the Tories are planning an unprecedented assault on pensioner incomes - from the notorious dementia tax to cuts to winter fuel payments and abandoning the 'triple lock' on pension increases.
"Any Tory MPs elected in Scotland will simply rubber-stamp further Tory Government cuts to Scotland's budget, while Labour can't win in Scotland and any votes for them risks letting Tory MPs in by the back door.
"The SNP will always stand up for the people of Scotland and for fairer policies - and now more than ever, it is vital to elect strong SNP voices to stand up for Scotland at Westminster."
