Labour Loses Ground


The Times reports that the latest Ipsos/MORI opinion poll for STV contains even more bad news for Labour as the SNP opens up an unprecedented 34-point lead in voting intentions for the Scottish Parliament.

Meanwhile the contest to select new Labour leaders in Scotland seem to have come down to a dreary 'left' versus 'right' fight between a Findlay/Clark and Murphy/Dugdale ticket with the women involved being reduced to supporting roles in both cases.

Labour's ridiculous electoral college will now decide the issue, but is capable of producing an odd result as the three sections are vastly in size: around 80 MSPs, MPs and MEPs carry the same voting strength as 10,000 or so individual Labour Party members in Scotland and 300,000 or so trade union members.

So in what passes for democracy in the Labour Party these days 80 voters = 10,000 voters = 300,000 voters, and if only 2,000 trade union members bothered to vote they would carry the same voting strength as the 10,000 Scottish Labour Party members.     



Blow for Labour as poll shows SNP raising Holyrood majority

Jim Murphy has secured the support of 43 MPs, MSPs and MEPs for his bid to replace Johann LamontJeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

By Hamish Macdonell - The Scotsman

The SNP is on course to increase its majority at Holyrood in 2016, according to another devastating poll for Labour released last night.

On the day that nominations closed for the Scottish Labour leadership, an Ipsos/MORI poll for STV into voting intentions for the Scottish parliament found a huge 34-point gap between the SNP and Labour.

This was the second set of results to be released in the poll, which last week suggested that Labour was heading for a virtual wipeout in next year’s general election.

These statistics, however, dealt specifically with voting intentions for Holyrood and found that 57 per cent of Scots said they would vote SNP in the Scottish parliament elections, with only 23 per cent backing Labour.

Translated into seats, this would give the Nationalists 75 MSPs — well ahead of the 65 needed for a second consecutive majority at Holyrood — to Labour’s 31.

The Tories would get seven seats for the eight per cent of the vote they are likely to receive, the Liberal Democrats five seats and six per cent of the vote while the Greens would be the third largest party, with ten seats and ten per cent of the vote.

The results of the poll came as Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale surged into an early lead in the race for the Scottish Labour leadership. By the time nominations had closed yesterday afternoon, Mr Murphy had secured the support of 43 MPs, MSPs and MEPs for his bid to replace Johann Lamont as Scottish Labour leader.

At the same time, Kezia Dugdale had received the support of 51 MPs, MSPs and MEPs for her campaign to become Labour’s new Scottish deputy leader.

All the other candidates struggled to get more than the minimum ten nominations needed to take part in the contest.

Katy Clark, the MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, who is standing against Ms Dugdale for the deputy position, had 11 nominations. Neil Findlay, the Lothians MSP and main leadership contender, managed to get 12 nominations, while Sarah Boyack — another leadership challenger — received ten nominations.

With the weight of support from MPs, MSPs and MEPs now clearly behind the unofficial team of Mr Murphy and Ms Dugdale, the pressure is on the other candidates to fight back.

It became clear that there was a crossover in the support enjoyed by Mr Murphy and Ms Dugdale. Many who backed the East Renfrewshire MP also backed the Lothians MSP.

There was also some degree of overlap in the support bases for Mr Findlay and Ms Clark, with both drawing support from their more left-leaning Labour colleagues.

This was interpreted in Holyrood last night as evidence of a clear left-right battle for the leadership of Scottish Labour, with Ms Dugdale and Mr Murphy on one side and Mr Findlay and Ms Clark on the other.

Mr Murphy said: “The fact that I am backed by so many MSPs, MPs and MEPs shows that the days of division in our party can and must be a thing of the past.” A Labour party spokesman said all the candidates, for both jobs, would take part in a series of hustings events for party members around the country before the ballot closed on December 10. The new leadership team will be announced on December 13.

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