LATEST POLL SUGGESTS SNP TO FALL WELL SHORT IN CONSTITUENCIES

Party predicted to fall short in constituencies

THE SNP look set to return the worst election result since it first came to power in 2007, a shock new opinion poll shows.

The survey shows the SNP still being the biggest party in the Holyrood chamber, however they would be well short of achieving a majority and the pro indy majority could also be lost if the Greens can't make up the numbers, as Alex Salmond's Alba Party are forecast to once again return 0 seats, stripping 3-4% from the SNP in Regions and failing to win anything with it.

According to the Savanta ComRes poll for The Scotsman, the SNP would return 59 MSPs which is six seats short of having the executive power to be able to govern competently without the assistance of others.

The standard sample of Scottish adults aged 16 or over were asked their voting intentions between April 30 and May 4 for the poll.

When the SNP swept to power in 2007, Alex Salmond secured 47 seats while in 2011 he managed to secure a majority with 69 seats.

At the last election in 2016, Nicola Sturgeon won a higher vote share across the country but failed to secure a majority by just two seats when the SNP returned 63 MSPs to Holyrood. The party identified the leakage on the List for costing them a majority.

A conclusion also reached by Alex Salmond in the aftermath of the last election, when he took a thinly veiled swipe at the Greens for costing the SNP a majority and reducing the number of pro independence MSPs in parliament. Mr Salmond accused them of "misrepresenting the vote". But in an astonishing about-face Mr Salmond is now attempting to replicate the Green strategy of 2016.

Douglas Ross and his Scottish Conservatives would be the second biggest party in the parliament with 29 seats, which is two fewer than they had after the 2016 vote.

Scottish Labour would be three MSPs behind the Tories on 26 seats, which would be two more than in 2016.

If Scottish Greens manage to win their highest ever number of seats (10) there could still be a majority for independence in the parliament. But everything is on a knife edge and it appears that the SNP vote in constituencies is not going to do as well as some believed, this coupled with the amount of people that are splitting their second votes, the worst of all circumstances that the party warned about might actually come home to roost.