Political Pulse

More Scots feel negative than positive about the Holyrood election result, with ‘disappointed’ and ‘frustrated’ the most common words chosen to describe how they feel about it.

The latest Ipsos Political Pulse, conducted between 8-12 May 2026 among 2,191 British adults in conjunction with ITV/Peston, reveals a challenging landscape for the current government, with low favourability for Prime Minister Keir Starmer and a significant shift in public expectations regarding Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Over half of Scots (51%) think that energy policy should be devolved to the Scottish Government, while a quarter (25%) feel responsibility should be shared equally with the UK Government and 14% that it should be reserved to Westminster.

The latest Ipsos Political Pulse explores attitudes towards Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

With just two weeks to go until the Scottish Parliament election on 7th May, new data from Ipsos’s Scotland Political Pulse shows that, while voters are not particularly impressed by any of the parties, the SNP have the edge, with views on both the party and their leader improving since last month.

New data from our Political Pulse survey, taken 20th-24th March, explores attitudes to GB political parties and leading politicians and whether the public prefer a Labour led government under Keir Starmer or a Reform UK led government under Nigel Farage.

John Swinney is the best rated of the party leaders, with a clear lead over Anas Sarwar and Malcolm Offord on most key leadership traits - although public sentiment is more negative than positive towards all the Scottish party leaders.

Over two thirds of Britons do not have confidence that the UK Government is running the country with integrity (68%), nor that they are running it properly, competently or seriously (69%).

Almost half (47%) of Britons think Kemi Badenoch made the right decision to sack Robert Jenrick and remove the Conservative party whip.