Glasgow, Scottland. Scottish voters are being told that poll results are against an independence referendum. Whether the choose to continue to pursue the dream of independence is now unclear.
The Scottish elections were held on Thursday 4 May, in all 32 local regions. The Scottish National Party (SNP) won the highest share of the vote, and retained its position as the party with the highest share of councillors.
The Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s personal approval ratings though collapsed from +14 to -4 since September last year, a period which included her demands for another ballot on Scottish independence, according to an Ipsos MORI poll published today that found support for separation has slumped since a previous poll in March this year dealing a further blow to Ms Sturgeon’s renewed constitutional battle for Scottish independence.
This is the first time the SNP leader has had a negative rating by the pollster and makes her the least popular Holyrood leader. The poll suggests her party is on course to lose three seats to the Tories at the general election but still return a majority of Scotland’s MPs, it is not exactly clear how voters are connecting a positive perception, enough so to keep her party in power, but a negative perception on the independence referendum itself.
Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives are running neck and neck with Scottish Labour at 25 per cent. The Conservative vote share is up on its 2015 result of 14 per cent but down on other surveys which put it as high as 33 per cent. But leader Ms Davidson received a higher satisfaction rating than Ms Sturgeon.
Scottish Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: “It’s clear, after a decade of failure in government and endless damaging agitation on independence, people are beginning to see through Nicola Sturgeon.”This poll confirms that, in seats all over Scotland, it is the Scottish Conservatives who are best placed to bring the SNP down to size.
With the election done and victory in hand, it becomes obvious that Sturgeon has a public relations problem, one that will see her return to office, but crippled and little chance of her second independence referendum even getting a vote by Scottish voters.