My latest round of focus groups takes us to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, where we heard from voters whose support tends to waver between Labour and the SNP, or between Labour and the Conservatives.
Our participants were still digesting the news that Nicola Sturgeon was no longer a suspect in the police investigation into the SNP’s finances – a number of them expressed the view that “she must have known something was going on” and “are you telling me she didn’t even ask a question about the camper van?”. Some, however, gave her the benefit of the doubt – “if the charges have been dropped, you have to assume she’s innocent”, said one.
If you want us to be independent, prove to us you can do it
Many of those who had moved away from the SNP at the general election said the scandals and surrounding loss of confidence in the party had been the biggest single factor, but others were at work. One was the imperative of getting rid of the Conservatives: “For me it was pure anti-Tory. In my constituency it was only going to be Labour or the SNP, and to get rid of the Tories in Westminster you need more Labour MPs;” “You got the sense that they could take the numbers to Westminster in 2019, be a decent contingent. But with the scandal and the binary decision between and Labour or Tory UK government, a small SNP cohort wasn’t worth it. It was better to have a stronger Labour party.”
Read more
