SNP on track to make big gains in general election

THE SNP has a 20 per cent opinion poll lead over Labour and is on course to make sweeping gains in May’s General Election.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon speaks at the party's conference in Perth in November 2014. Picture: Greg Macvean

Labour would have the support of 26 per cent of Scots, with the SNP on 46 per cent, if the results of the Survation poll were repeated on election day.

The SNP would gain 52 seats in Scotland based on 46 per cent of the vote, while Labour would see its tally of MPs in Scotland shrink from 41 to six - the current level of nationalist representation at Westminster.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives had 14 per cent of the vote, with the Liberal Democrats on seven per cent, according to the poll of 1,006 people.

• Labour ‘on course to lose half its Scottish seats’

The poll also found that 35.1 per cent of Scottish voters would prefer to see a deal between Labour and the SNP at Westminster after the election.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously said she could not envisage the SNP entering a formal coalition with Labour, but could see the party negotiating a “confidence and supply” arrangement.

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