Battle on for Holyrood as poll puts SNP ahead

THE Holyrood election race was thrown wide open last night as a new poll put the SNP on course to retain its grip on power.

The Ipsos/Mori poll for the Times has Alex Salmond's party ahead of Labour on both the constituency and regional list vote, representing a major turn-around on polls taken at the turn of the year.

The SNP's slight advantage over Labour in the poll contrasts with one by the same firm in November which put the SNP ten points behind Labour.

Only last month, a poll had Labour some 16 points ahead of the Nationalists and the shock finding will act as a shot in the arm for the Nationalist campaign.

John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said last night: "The poll shows that the SNP are one or two points ahead of Labour. We will have to wait and see for another poll as to whether this is a rogue poll, but it does mean that attitudes to this election are going to be rather different over the coming weeks.

"It may mean that we have a race on our hands after all."

He added: "It may be that now the Holyrood election is coming into view, people are looking at what the parties are offering, rather than being mesmerised by what is happening south of the Border."

SNP strategists have claimed their poll ratings would rise once voters focused their attention on the Holyrood race. The SNP campaign has insisted that, since last May, it has been suffering from a Westminster "hangover", with voters still preoccupied on the emergence of the coalition government there.

However, Labour campaign managers have also been expecting the race to tighten once the countdown began to the election, and believe they are picking up support in the right areas across the country.