Popularity ratings of Scottish party leaders revealed, including SNP's John Swinney - but they're all negative

John Swinney is the most popular political leader in Scotland, a YouGov poll has found, with the public also more likely to back the SNP over Labour.

The First Minister still scores a negative rating of -14 though, with 34 per cent holding a favourable view and 48 per cent holding an unfavourable one.

John Swinney, Russell Findlay and Anas Sarwar | PA

But it is higher than his Labour rivals, with only 20 per cent of Scots having a positive opinion about Anas Sarwar compared to 49 per cent who do not – giving a net favourability rating of -29.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has a net favourability rating of -36, with 27 per cent approving of the UK Labour leader and 63 per cent disapproving.

Scottish Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater hold net approval ratings of -24 and -27 respectively, while Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay has a -21 rating and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has a -20 rating.

However, a majority responded “don’t know” when asked about Ms Slater (52 per cent), Mr Cole-Hamilton (61 per cent) and Mr Findlay (60 per cent). Some 44 per cent picked the same response for Mr Harvie, the longest-serving leader of any major party in Scotland.

Patrick Harvie | Andrew Milligan/Press Association

Of all the political figures polled, former first minister Nicola Sturgeon had the highest amount of favourable responses at 38 per cent, although her net score at -16 was still lower than Mr Swinney’s as a majority of Scots (54 per cent) held an unfavourable view of her.

Scots are also more likely to think the SNP will make the right decisions for Scotland when compared to Labour, although both parties suffer from low rates of confidence.

Asked about health and the economy, 31 per cent of survey respondents expressed a lot or a fair amount of confidence in the SNP to make the right decisions on both issues, while 60 per cent and 59 per cent respectively held little or no confidence in the party.

For Scottish Labour, 22 per cent said the party would make the right calls on health while 19 per cent said the same for the economy. Sixty-nine per cent and 71 per cent respectively held the opposite views.

YouGov said in all areas it tested, the SNP came ahead of Scottish Labour, although neither party gained the confidence of more than a third of Scots on any key issue. Health continued to rank as the most important issue for a majority of Scots (55 per cent), with the economy close behind at 54 per cent and education in third at 31 per cent.

Independence scored low on the list, with just 14 per cent of people saying it should be the Scottish Government’s top priority, ranking joint-eighth alongside welfare.

Among 2024 SNP voters, independence rose to third place overall at 32 per cent, although this is still far behind health (54 per cent) and the economy (51 per cent).

YouGov’s poll also put the No side ahead with 54 per cent backing staying in the UK if another Scottish independence referendum was held, compared to 46 per cent who supported Yes.

A significant proportion (72 per cent) said there should not be a referendum within the next year, but this margin narrows when asked about the next five years, with 51 per cent saying there should not, but 38 per cent saying there should.

Only when asked about the next decade do we see Scots lean towards having another referendum, with 46 per cent saying there should be one and 38 per cent saying there should not.

A total of 1,043 people aged over 16 in Scotland were polled by YouGov between March 17 and 21.