Where votes go

Labour’s claim that “seats for the SNP at next month’s general election will lead to the return of the Tories and David Cameron to Downing Street” is beginning to wear a little thin.

While the SNP continues to ride high in the polls pertaining to Scotland, with predictions of the party winning perhaps more than 40 seats and Labour’s number of seats dwindling to maybe less than ten, the result of a separate UK-wide poll suggests a six-point lead for Labour over the Conservatives.

In each general election held in the years 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992 and 2010, Labour ended up with the majority of Scottish seats, yet it was the Tories who formed the government.

Therefore, it will be voters in England who will have the major say in which party wins the election outright, or finishes as the party with the highest number of seats.

Michael Horsburgh

Edinburgh