Scottish Labour '˜on course to retain second place at Holyrood'

SCOTTISH Labour are on course to narrowly retain their place as Holyrood's second party, according to a 'poll of polls' compiled by public affairs firm Weber Shandwick.

The news will give Kezia Dugdale something to smile about. Picture: TSPL

It has averaged the results of six opinion polls conducted during April, and analysed the results using its seat predictor ScotlandVotes.com.

For the constituency vote, the poll of polls puts the SNP on 52.8 per cent, Scottish Labour on 20 per cent, Conservatives on 16.8 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 5.8 per cent.

For the regional vote, the SNP are on 45.3 per cent, Scottish Labour 19 per cent, Conservatives 17 per cent, Liberal Democrats 5.6 per cent, Greens 8.8 per cent and Ukip on 3.75 per cent.

When plugged in to the seat predictor, the results show that the SNP are set to take 72 seats - an increase of three seats from 2011.

Scottish Labour drops 14 seats to 23 MSPs, with the Conservatives up four on 19 seats. The Liberal Democrats would add one seat taking them to six, while Holyrood would see nine Green MSPs elected.

Weber Shandwick’s Conor Magowan said: “Following a slick manifesto launch today’s poll of polls rounds off a good week for SNP election strategists. Adding three more MSPs to SNP ranks after nine years of Government would be an impressive achievement.

“Labour will be counting on a manifesto launch bump to boost their polling fortunes but it remains tight between them and the Conservatives. While the Tories are set to remain in third position, the biggest risers will be the Greens.”

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