Poll: Majority of Scots want snap Holyrood election in wake of Humza Yousaf becoming First Minister

The majority of Scots want a snap election following Humza Yousaf becoming First Minister, new polling suggests.

A Redfield & Wilton survey of 1,000 people showed more than half of voters want an election called immediately, with almost three in five supporting a vote being held in the next six months.

Carried out between March 31 and April 1, the survey also found just 36 per cent said they would vote SNP in a general election, down nine points on the last Westminster vote in 2019.

The gap between the SNP and Labour also shrunk, down to just five points. Labour is on 31 per cent, up two, followed by the Tories on 19 per cent and the Lib Dems on 10 per cent, which would see Mr Yousaf’s party losing 20 of its 48 Westminster seats if repeated at an election.

Newly elected First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf. Picture: PA

The poll was carried out before the arrest of former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell.

It comes with Scottish Labour already calling for an election following Nicola Sturgeon standing down at First Minister.

Speaking to The Scotsman earlier this week, shadow Scotland secretary Ian Murray claimed the argument for an election was only growing.

He said: “We’ve called for it at every opportunity that we’ve had the chance to do so. [Scottish Labour leader] Anas [Sarwar] called for it at Humza’s first FMQs, I called for it at Scotland Questions before recess.

"The point we are making is if a prime minister or first minister changes during the course of a term, they inherit the predecessor legacy, but they don’t inherit the mandate.

“It’s completely hypocritical that they said the prime ministers had no mandate as they were appointed by Tory members, but now a first minister is foisted on us by SNP members. If they want to practise what they’ve been preaching, we need a UK and Scottish election on that basis.”

An SNP spokesman said: “Humza Yousaf was elected First Minister by a majority of MSPs at the Scottish Parliament, as happened three times previously when there has been a change of leader for the party of Government. A Scottish parliamentary term is set to a fixed term of five years by the Scotland Act.”