The Labour Government’s delivery “will turn the polls around” in Scotland, Ian Murray has said. The Scottish Secretary was speaking after a poll predicted the party’s worst result in Scotland since devolution.
A Sunday Times survey conducted by Norstat suggested Labour could fall to as little as 18 seats at next year’s Holyrood election, falling sharply from a convincing win in last year’s general election.
A series of unpopular decisions by the UK Government including on compensation for Waspi women and the means-testing of the Winter Fuel Payment have caused Scottish Labour to fall in the polls
But Murray has said some “really impossible, difficult decisions” had to be taken early on in the party’s tenure at Westminster.
He said: “I’m looking at the great growth programme we’ve got ahead of us and I’m looking forward to taking that much more positive agenda and what we can do for the future, delivering our manifesto out to the people of Scotland.
“That will turn the polls around.”
The Norstat survey suggested the SNP could rebound from a devastating defeat last summer to take 55 seats – a drop of nine since 2021. But there would be a pro-independence majority in Holyrood again if the Greens take the predicted 10 seats.
Elsewhere, the Tories would be level with Labour on 18 and the Lib Dems were projected to return 13 MSPs, while Nigel Farage’s Reform UK could win 15.
But Murray, whose party has been on a downward slide since winning in July, said “polls are polls”.
“If we rewind back to about 18 months before the 2024 election, all the commentators and all the polls were saying we would never win 20 to 25 seats – we went on to win 37,” he said.
The Scottish Secretary also pointed to recent successes for the party in local council by-elections prompted by councillors being elected to Westminster: “I’m looking at actual votes in ballot boxes.”
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