Humza Yousaf SNP leadership: Sir John Curtice says Labour can win at least 10 Scottish seats at general election after Yousaf's election

The Labour Party has an opportunity to win at least ten Scottish seats in a general election after Humza Yousaf’s election as SNP leader, Sir John Curtice has said.

Sir John, who is professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, told TalkTV: “I think the Labour Party will certainly feel they have an opportunity and they are quite right to feel that way. They are now running at about 30 per cent in Scotland. That leaves them only 10 points behind the SNP.

“The reason why that matters is that at kind of level of lead, the Labour Party begins to pick up seats from the SNP.

“There are around ten seats in Scotland which might fall to Labour if the SNP lead across Scotland as a whole is down to ten points.”

Polling expert Sir John Curtice. Picture: John Devlin

The polling expert added: “The Labour Party is the one unionist party that has some ability to appeal to some people who are in favour of independence but are not necessarily going to vote for the SNP. The crucial question is whether the Labour Party can increase that constituency.”