Scottish Labour Party Spring Conference 2011: an Ipsos Briefing Pack

Ahead of the Scottish Labour Party Spring Conference in Glasgow on Saturday, Ipsos takes a look at the party’s polling performance and highlights the key issues that will dominate this year’s Holyrood election campaign. Our latest poll shows Labour to be neck and neck with the SNP in the race to win May’s Holyrood election, however, they have lost the lead they held in November. Our results suggest that Labour will increase its share of the vote from the 2007 election by four points but will remain the second largest party behind the SNP, based on a uniform swing across seats. Party leader Iain Gray has a relatively low profile among Scots in general and also among his own party’s supporters, with one in five Labour supporters saying they have never heard of him. However, the majority of Labour supporters say they are satisfied with his performance as party leader. It is clear that the key battleground for votes will be around the economy and the key public services, since these are clear priorities for the electorate. The state of the economy remains the most important issue of concern for Scots but we expect the public to become increasingly interested in the key public services as the election draws closer. Labour supporters have been consistently more pessimistic about the Scottish economy than other party supporters since last year’s general election. For more information, please contact Mark Diffley or Chris McLean on 0131 220 5699 Download the full slide pack (PDF)