Salmond remains most popular party leader with record rating

Alex Salmond has received record satisfaction ratings, and has a substantial lead over Iain Gray in terms of who would make the more capable First Minister, according to our latest poll. Six-in-ten Scots are satisfied with the way in which the First Minister is doing his job, compared to around a quarter (27%) who are dissatisfied, giving him a net satisfaction rating of +33%, some 17 points higher than the net rating in our February poll. Despite her party polling in third place, Conservative leader Annabel Goldie is the second most popular leader with a net rating of +10% (40% satisfied vs. 30% dissatisfied). For Labour’s Iain Gray, Scots are equally split on his performance with 36% satisfied and 35% dissatisfied while Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott has a net rating -4%, with 30% of Scots satisfied and 30% dissatisfied. As expected, support for each leader is strongest among those who intend to vote for their party. However, Alex Salmond also enjoys relatively high ratings even among those who support other parties. Indeed, his satisfaction ratings among Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat supporters (48%, 46% and 48%) are higher than support for the leaders of those parties among Scots as a whole. When asked who would make the more capable First Minister, over half of Scots (53%) chose Alex Salmond over Iain Gray who was supported by around a quarter (23%). Again, Alex Salmond draws wider support from across the parties than Iain Gray, including over a quarter (28%) of Labour supporters who think Salmond would make the more capable First Minister. Mark Diffley, Research Director at Ipsos said: ‘This poll confirms all our recent surveys that Alex Salmond remains the most popular party leader in Scotland, substantially out-performing the other three main party leaders. His approval rating of 60% among Scots is higher than we have recorded in the past, beating the pervious high of 55% in August 2009. This rating is 20% higher than Annabel Goldie in second place and double the rating of Tavish Scott in fourth place. Our poll also indicates that the current First Minister has a significant lead over Labour’s Iain Gray in terms of who would make the more capable FM in the new parliament. Significantly, Conservative and Liberal Democrat supporters are more likely to back Alex Salmond on this question while over a quarter of Labour supporters also think the current First Minister is the more capable of the two candidates.’

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Technical note:

• Results are based on a survey of 1,002 respondents conducted by telephone between 14th April and 17th April 2011
• Data are weighted by age, sex, working status using census data, tenure using SHS 2007-2008 data and public-private sector employment by Scottish Government Quarterly Public Sector Employment series data. 
• An asterisk (*) indicates a percentage of less than 0.5% but greater than 0. 
• Where results do not sum to 100, this may be due to multiple responses or computer rounding 
• Where the base size is less than 30 the number (N) rather than the percentage of respondents is given 
• Results are based on all respondents (1,002) unless otherwise stated.