Europe Decides

The SNP were given an election day boost today when a last-minute opinion poll gave them a clear lead over Labour.

Today’s YouGov survey put the SNP six points ahead in the constituency vote, five points ahead in the regional vote and predicted the party would end up with six more seats than Labour in the Scottish Parliament. Translated into seats, the SNP would have 45 seats to Labour’s 39, the Conservatives 17, the Lib Dems 16, the Greens 9 and others 3.

However, these predictions would leave the SNP unable to form a coalition with the Lib Dems alone. They would require the Greens to be part of a coalition, to have a majority.

That’s a stronger lead than forecast in two other polls published yesterday which suggested the Nationalists would emerge with just one or two seats more than Labour.