More than half think Scotland ‘heading in wrong direction’, poll finds

Just over half of Scots fear the country is going “in the wrong direction”, polling has revealed, with the number who feel this way on the rise.

Research by pollsters Ipsos found 51% of those surveyed in September believe Scotland is “heading in the wrong direction” – up from 45% in May.

Just one in five (20%) believe the country is “heading in the right direction”, compared to 22% in May.

With the SNP conference getting under way in Aberdeen later this week, Ipsos Scotland managing director Emily Gray told the Press Association the findings present a challenge for First Minister John Swinney, highlighting the “downwards trend in how Scots are feeling about the direction of the country” comes just a few months since the Holyrood election.

She said: “In terms of John Swinney’s challenges ahead of the conference, a big thing is that half of the Scottish public say that Scotland is headed in the wrong direction.

“That dynamic around increasing public dissatisfaction with the direction that Scotland is headed in will be a concern for John Swinney, and of course he will want to reverse that trend at conference, demonstrating to the public and his party that the SNP is able to deliver tangible results for Scotland on the issues that matter to the public, like the economy, inflation, the NHS.

“In May we were two weeks post-election, so maybe we still had that post-election bounce in terms of the SNP getting back in.

“But a few months on, there is a downwards trend in how Scots are feeling about the direction of the country.”

The poll also showed an increase in the number of Scots who would be happy for Mr Swinney’s Government to work closely with the Westminster administration.

In May – when Sir Keir Starmer was prime minister – 30% of people in Scotland backed the idea of Holyrood ministers working closely with their counterparts in the UK Government.

But with Andy Burnham now in charge in No 10, the September poll – the latest in the Scotland Political Pulse series from Ipsos – found 42% would be happy for the two governments to collaborate.

Ms Gray said: “The Scottish public are feeling much warmer to the Scottish Government and the UK Government working closely together than they did back in May.”

At that time, she said Scots had been “unhappier with the prospect of the Scottish Government working with the UK Government than they were about it working with Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland”.

But she added: “That has shifted a lot since then.

“I think the most likely conclusion is the Scottish public are feeling warmer towards the relations between their two governments under Burnham than they were under Starmer.

“Now what we find is that 42% tell us they would be happy about the two governments working together, just 24% think they would be unhappy.”

This ties in with wider polling showing Mr Burnham is “better rated by the public in Scotland than Starmer was, by some way”, she said.

She continued: “I think the most likely conclusion there to draw is Scots are now feeling a bit more positive about those intergovernmental relations than they did a few months back.

“What’s really striking is that voters of all political stripes are more positive than they are negative about the Scottish and UK governments working closely together, again that wasn’t the case back in May.

“As you might expect, Scottish Labour voters are particularly keen on the two governments working together, but actually when you look at SNP and Reform voters – they are also on balance more positive about the two governments working together than they are negative, and that is really a change since May.”

The latest polling shows two-thirds (66%) of Labour voters are happy for the two governments to work closely together, with 38% of SNP voters and 37% of Reform UK voters also backing greater collaboration between Holyrood and Westminster.

SNP depute leader Keith Brown said: “Times are really tough for people at the moment with the cost of living soaring across the UK.

“That’s why the SNP Government is laser-focused on the issues that matter – delivering the best cost-of-living support for households anywhere in the UK and improving our NHS by opening GP walk-in clinics, reducing waiting times and delivering more appointments.

“The UK Government must also finally step up to the plate and use the UK Budget to deliver a major package of financial support for families in the face of sky-high household bills.”