Attitudes on Scotland’s leaders and the most important issues facing the country
With Holyrood elections on the horizon, analysis of new YouGov data uncovers the most important issues to Scottish people, where they stand on independence, and who they trust to make the right decisions for the country.
Favourability towards Scottish leaders
With SNP first minister John Swinney hoping to secure a fifth consecutive election win for his party, he will be troubled by his relatively lacklustre approval ratings.
A third (34%) of Scots say they have a favourable view of Swinney, whilst 48% have an unfavourable opinion. Nevertheless, Swinney’s favourability ratings are still higher than those of his rivals. For Labour, just one in five (20%) feel favourable towards Anas Sarwar, whilst half (49%) disapprove of him.
Leaders from the smaller Scottish parties, namely, Scotland’s Tory leader Russel Findlay, the Lib Dems’ Alex Cole-Hamilton, and Green leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater are all likely to be held in an unfavourable light, with a considerable number of Scottish adults seemingly not having an opinion on these lower-profile party leaders, with 44-61% answering “don’t know”.
Nicola Sturgeon recently announced she will not seek re-election at Holyrood next year, and although she isn’t particularly liked amongst the wider Scottish public, she remains popular amongst SNP supporters. Amongst all Scots, 38% have a favourable view of the nation’s longest serving first minister, whilst 54% hold an unfavourable one. Amongst SNP voters, four-fifths (81%) hold a positive view of her, more than do so of John Swinney (76%) and Humza Yousaf (46%).
What’s important to Scotland?
When it comes to top priorities for the Scottish government, two issues dominate across all voting and social groups: health and the economy. Most Scots (55%) say that health should be a main priority for the Scottish government, with a similar number saying so of the economy (54%). Third-placed education follows in a distant third, on 31%.
Independence is, for the time being, much lower down the list of priorities for Scots. Only 14% say it should be a top priority for the Scottish government, ranking joint-eighth alongside welfare benefits. Among 2024 SNP voters, independence does rise in the ranks to third place overall, at 32%, although this is still far behind health (54%) and the economy (51%).
Scottish independence tracker
Our latest tracker shows that in the event of another independence referendum, 54% would vote No to Scottish independence and 46% would vote Yes.
Whilst older Scots are especially against independence, with 67% of over 65s stating they would vote No, most of the youngest generation (59% of 16-24 year olds) hold the opposing view and would vote Yes to a referendum if it was held tomorrow.
Whilst a significant proportion (72%) think that there should not be a referendum within the next year, this margin narrows when asked about the next five years, with 51% saying there should not but 38% thinking there should. Only when asked about the next decade do we see Scots lean towards having another referendum (46% should vs 38% should not)
Confidence in decision making falls to the SNP over Labour
With Labour now in charge in Westminster, they will be hoping Scots will also hand them the reins of power in the Holyrood as well. However, our data shows that Scots are more likely to think that the SNP would make the right decisions for Scotland.
When looking at healthcare and the economy – currently the two issues seen as most important in Scotland – 31% say in both cases that they have a lot or a fair amount of confidence that the SNP would make the right decisions in these areas. In comparison, only 22% said the same about Labour’s decision making for Scottish healthcare, and 19% for the economy. In fact, in all areas we tested, are more likely to have Scots confidence in the SNP to make the right decision for Scotland.
Although on the surface this looks positive for the SNP, neither party is actually instilling great confidence overall. In all areas we asked about, more than half of the Scottish public hold little or zero confidence in the SNP to make the right decisions, and two-thirds or more feel the same way about the Labour party.
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Photo: Getty
