Scottish Conservatives face general election wipeout in wake of Christmas party scandal, poll shows

The Scottish Conservatives face being wiped out at a general election in the wake of the Downing Street Christmas party scandal, a new poll has found.

Research by Opinium for the Sunday Mail found the Tories would lose all six of their Westminster seats north of the border.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been hit with a deluge of negative headlines over claims rule-breaking gatherings took place over lockdown.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross

The poll found 79 per cent believe a party took place.

Meanwhile, just 18 per cent trust Mr Johnson, with 77 per cent believing he lied over Covid rule breaking.

In comparison, 53 per cent said they trusted Nicola Sturgeon, while 37 per cent trust Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Opinium polled 1,328 Scots between December 15 and December 22.

The results indicate the SNP would win 56 out of 59 Scottish seats in a Westminster election, with 48 per cent of the vote.

The Liberal Democrats would secure two seats and 7 per cent of the vote, while Labour would be on one seat and 22 per cent.

The Tories would fail to hold a single seat, securing just 17 per cent of the vote.

Polling expert Sir John Curtice, of the University of Strathclyde, said: “Based on this poll, the Tories are at risk of losing every single seat they’ve got in Scotland.

“They are significantly down on where they were at the last general election in 2019 and on that kind of movement, if it happened in every constituency, they would lose every seat.

“The 17 per cent share for Westminster voting intention is the lowest in any Scottish poll since September 2015.

“It just underlines how disastrous Partygate has been.”

Chris Curtis, head of political polling at Opinium, told the Sunday Mail: “Just like we have seen across the rest of the UK, the Tories have been badly damaged by the accusations of Downing Street parties.

“Our poll clearly shows how Scots do not believe the Prime Minister’s version of events and seem to be saying that they are less likely to vote Conservative as a consequence.

“Polls can go up and down and Boris Johnson has bounced back before.

"But the Scottish Tory MPs probably aren’t going to be happy with the fact that the party has fallen back behind Labour.”