A new poll from Survation shows Labour and the SNP are virtually neck-and-neck in Scotland, with top psephologist Sir John Curtice now claiming every Scottish constituency will be a marginal seat at the next General Election. A YouGov poll last week had the two parties within four points of each other…
Now Survation says this:
Just a two-point gap at the top…
Curtice says, according to current constituency boundaries, that would give the SNP and Labour 24 seats each:
“There’s certainly is all to play for so far as the representation of Scotland at Westminster at the next general election with potentially important implications for the overall outcome of the next UK General Election…
“Pretty much every seat in Scotland will be a marginal seat, and therefore a relatively small increase in the SNP lead, and all of a sudden those high expectations for Labour would not look quite so realistic. But equally, if the Labour Party could actually overtake the SNP in voting intentions in Scotland, something they’ve not yet managed to do according to any poll, then they could indeed, quite clearly be the dominant party so far as Scotland’s representation at Westminster is concerned.”
Music to Starmer’s ears. He better start learning the names of Anas Sarwar’s colleagues…
Anas Sarwar’s Scottish Labour have heard the mood music from Team Starmer and rowed back on their support for the SNP’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill, despite having claimed it was “right” to vote for it just six months ago. Now, the party have decided it’s “deeply flawed”…
According to The Times, Sarwar no longer supports the idea of self-ID – which allows anyone over 16 to change their gender without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria – and although Scottish Labour still supports it “in principle”, the SNP’s refusal to accept Labour’s amendments to safeguard women’s spaces is now a problem. Six months ago they said the same thing, yet backed it anyway. “Principles” don’t get you very far in politics…
Yesterday Sarwar offered this word salad when asked if he’d vote for the Bill again:
“I’ve been reflective about this since the passage of the GRR Bill and I’ve said it feels like everybody has lost. I don’t think our trans community feel any more protected since the passing of the GRR Bill […] I don’t think women feel any more reassured since the passing of the GRR Bill, but I still continue to believe that it’s right for us to want to remove the indignities and the humanities in the process of obtaining a [gender certificate].
“We still have work to do to make sure that we are protecting single-sex spaces based on biological sex [and] I think the government should reflect that they didn’t go far enough and accepting amendments…”
Starmer saw the winds blowing in a different direction many weeks ago, now Sarwar is playing catch-up…
Whilst the SNP have despatched sex pest Patrick Grady to help their campaigning efforts in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, Scottish Labour have also turned to dirty tricks. The party has been paying to target an anti-SNP attack ad over on Facebook. Although Labour are happy to share the video with target voters, they don’t seem so keen for others to see the mudslinging…
While the party was willing to spend over £500 promoting the video to individual voters on Facebook, it is nowhere to be seen on Labour’s social media pages and is “unlisted” on Youtube – meaning you can only see it if you have the link. In the five minute video, Anas Sarwar lists the SNP’s Operation Branchform arrests, accuses the SNP of choosing “secrecy and cover-up over transparency” and says the “mired in sleaze” party tried to “hide sexual misconduct allegations”. You can always trust the Scots to take the low road…
Starmer, in what no doubt some SNP blowhard will say is an insult to the Scottish people, has refused to sample Scotland’s famous national dish*: a deep fried Mars Bar. At a media event held at a Siemens’ factory this morning, he was offered and refused to eat a deep fried Mars Bar drizzled in caramel provided in a spread by Siemens. According to Sun reporter Chris Musson, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar astutely gave it a go, saying it was “actually quite nice … tastes like eating chocolate after pakora.” The famous fried sugary delicacy is perhaps one reason why Scotland has the lowest life expectancy in Western Europe.
*You weren’t thinking Haggis for breakfast.