Opinion polling for the 2007 Scottish Parliament election

This is a list of opinion polls for the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. The first figure for each party is for the 1st, first-past-the-post, constituency, vote; the second figure is for the 2nd, proportional representation, regional, vote. The Scottish Greens and the Scottish Socialist Party ran only one constituency candidate each in the 2007 election (the Greens in Glasgow Kelvin and the SSP in Paisley North) so constituency values in polls for those parties have little meaning.

ICM, Ipsos MORI, Populus, YouGov and TNS System Three (a subsidiary of Taylor Nelson Sofres) are all members of the British Polling Council (BPC), and therefore fully disclose the methodology used, and publish tables of the detailed statistical findings. Scottish Opinion (a brand of Progressive Partnership) and mruk are not BPC members.

Constituency vote

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Pollster/client Date(s)
conducted
Lab SNP Con Lib Dem SSP Green Others
2007 Scottish Parliament election 32.2% 32.9% 16.6% 16.2% - - -
YouGov/The Daily Telegraph[dead link] 2 May 2007 31% 37% 13% 14% - - 5%
ICM/The Guardian/The Scotsman 30 April 2007 32% 34% 13% 16% - - 5%
Populus/The Times 30 April 2007 29% 33% 13% 15% - - 10%
YouGov/Daily Telegraph 26 April 2007 30% 39% 13% 15% - - 4%
YouGov/ESRC 23 April 2007 30% 38% 12% 15% - - -
YouGov/Sunday Times 20 April 2007 30% 37% 14% 15% - - 4%
mruk/Herald 19 April 2007 34% 38% 11% 13% - - -
Populus/Times 17 April 2007 30% 34% 13% 18% - - 6%
Scottish Opinion/Mail on Sunday 15 April 2007 35% 32% 13% 15% - - -
ICM/Scotsman 3 April 2007 27% 32% 13% 19% 5% - 4%
TNS System Three/STV 1 April 2007 34% 39% 13% 11% - - 3%
YouGov/Daily Telegraph 28 March 2007 29% 35% 13% 14% - - 9%
mruk/Herald 27 March 2007 38% 34% 10% 15% - - 3%
Scottish Opinion/Daily Mail 26 March 2007 28% 34% 11% 11% - 9% -
Populus/Times 25 March 2007 28% 38% 14% 15% - - 6%
ICM/Scotsman 26 February 2007 29% 34% 16% 16% 1% - -
ICM/Scotsman 29 January 2007 31% 33% 13% 17% 3% - 3%
YouGov/Sunday Times 12 January 2007 29% 35% 13% 18% 1% 2% 2%
YouGov/Channel 4 8 January 2007 31% 33% 14% 14% 1% 5% 4%
ICM/Scotsman 23 November 2006 29% 34% 13% 17% 3% 2% 2%
ICM/Scotsman 30 October 2006 30% 32% 14% 15% 4% 3% 3%
Scottish Opinion/Sunday Mail 20 October 2006 32% 35% 11% 16% 2% - 2%
YouGov/Sunday Times 7 September 2006 30% 29% 14% 18% 2% 5% 4%
TNS System Three/Herald[dead link] 29 August 2006 36% 28% 12% 17% 4% 3% -
TNS System Three/Herald[dead link] 1 August 2006 37% 29% 13% 14% 3% 2% -
TNS System Three/Herald[dead link] 4 July 2006 37% 31% 11% 14% 3% 3% -
Ipsos MORI 1 July 2006 28% 30% 15% 19% 1% 4% 3%
2003 Scottish Parliament election 34.9% 23.8% 16.5% 15.1% 6.2% - 3.5%

Regional vote

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Pollster/client Date(s)
conducted
Lab SNP Con Lib Dem Green SSP Others
2007 Scottish Parliament election 29.2% 31.0% 13.9% 11.3% 4.0% 0.6%
YouGov/The Daily Telegraph[dead link] 2 May 2007 27% 32% 13% 10% 9% - 9%
ICM/The Guardian/The Scotsman 30 April 2007 29% 30% 13% 16% 4% 3% 5%
Populus/The Times 30 April 2007 28% 31% 14% 15% 4% 1% 7%
YouGov/Daily Telegraph 26 April 2007 27% 31% 13% 11% 9% 3% 7%
YouGov/ESRC 23 April 2007 27% 32% 14% 12% - - -
YouGov/The Sunday Times 20 April 2007 28% 35% 13% 13% - - 11%
mruk/The Herald 19 April 2007 36% 37% 11% 11% 3% - -
Populus/The Times 17 April 2007 27% 34% 14% 18% 3% 1% 3%
Scottish Opinion/Mail on Sunday 15 April 2007 34% 31% 12% 13% 5% - -
ICM/Scotsman 3 April 2007 27% 31% 12% 17% 5% 5% 3%
TNS System Three/STV 1 April 2007 25% 36% 11% 13% 6% 3% 7%
YouGov/The Daily Telegraph 28 March 2007 27% 33% 15% 12% 6% 2% 5%
mruk/The Herald 27 March 2007 37% 35% 10% 14% 3% - 1%
Scottish Opinion/Daily Mail 26 March 2007 28% 32% 10% 11% 10% - -
Populus/The Times 25 March 2007 30% 35% 14% 14% 4% 1% 2%
ICM/The Scotsman 26 February 2007 28% 32% 15% 17% 4% 2% -
ICM/The Scotsman 29 January 2007 27% 33% 14% 17% 5% 3% 2%
YouGov/The Sunday Times 12 January 2007 30% 32% 14% 14% 5% 1% 4%
YouGov/Channel 4 8 January 2007 28% 33% 15% 11% 7% 1% 4%
ICM/Scotsman 23 November 2006 26% 31% 12% 19% 6% 4% 2%
ICM/Scotsman 30 October 2006 28% 28% 14% 17% 6% 4% 3%
Scottish Opinion/Sunday Mail 20 October 2006 25% 28% 11% 26% 4% 5% 1%
YouGov/The Sunday Times 7 September 2006 27% 29% 14% 15% 8% 2% 5%
TNS System Three/The Herald[dead link] 29 August 2006 28% 27% 11% 19% 8% 6% -
TNS System Three/The Herald[dead link] 1 August 2006 29% 32% 10% 15% 8% 4% -
TNS System Three/Herald[dead link] 4 July 2006 29% 33% 9% 17% 5% 5% -
Ipsos MORI 1 July 2006 26% 28% 16% 19% 6% 1% 4%
2003 Scottish Parliament election 29.3% 20.9% 15.5% 11.8% 6.9% 6.7% 9.0%

Seat predictions

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The Scotsman stated that the findings of their 3 April poll would produce a seat distribution as follows: SNP 44 MSPs (+17), Labour 39 MSPs (-11), Liberal Democrats 24 MSPs (+7), Conservative 15 MSPs (-3).

The Sunday Times (12 January) stated that the findings of their poll would produce a seat distribution as follows: Labour 42 MSPs (-8), SNP 38 MSPs (+11), Liberal Democrats 19 MSPs (+2), Conservative 17 MSPs (-1), Greens 9 MSPs (+2), others 4 MSPs (-6).

Constitutional issue

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Several polls were carried out on whether voters would support independence for Scotland, a key issue in this election and a central policy of the SNP. However, the results of such polls have historically been proven to be sensitive to the wording of the question used.

  • On 10 September 2006, The Sunday Times Scotland published an opinion poll[1] conducted by YouGov. 1176 respondents were interviewed between 5 September and 7 September 2006.[2] The survey found that 44% were in favour of Scottish independence when asked "If there were a referendum tomorrow on whether Scotland should become an independent country, separate from the rest of the United Kingdom, how would you be inclined to vote?" 42% were against, and 15% did not know. 64% were in favour of giving the Scottish Parliament more powers, with 19% disagreeing.
  • A September 2006 poll by the research agency YouGov showed that 44% of respondents said they would back a separate Scotland in an independence referendum compared with 42% who did not.[3][4][1]
  • A poll by The Scotsman in October 2006 suggested that 51% of Scots would be in favour of independence, with 39% against.[5]
  • A Daily Telegraph poll showed that a significant proportion of Britons would accept the breakup of the UK.[6]
  • On 1 November 2006, The Scotsman published an opinion poll[7] conducted by ICM. The survey found that 51% were in favour of independence, with 37% against.

When polls give three options, including an option for greater devolution but stopping short of independence, support for full independence is much lower. In a poll by The Times, published on 20 April 2007, given a choice between independence, the status quo, or greater powers for the Scottish Parliament within the United Kingdom, the latter option had majority support (56%) with only 22% supporting full independence.[8] Even among SNP voters, more (47%) supported a more powerful Parliament than full independence (45%).

Other issues

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The result for the Kelvin constituency in Glasgow being declared.

On 4 April 2007, the BBC published the findings of a poll it had commissioned from ICM. The 1001 respondents were asked to rank a given list of issues, in the order which they thought "should be the priorities of the new parliament?"[9][10] The respondents ranked the main issues as follows:

1. Schools/health

2. Police on streets

3. Council tax for 65s+

4. Local hospitals

5. Farming/fishing

6. Young offenders curfew

7. Free school meals

8. Buses/trains (not roads)

9. Scrap tuition fees

10. Community sentences

References

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  1. ^ a b "Labour turmoil as Scots back independence". The Sunday Times Scotland. 10 September 2006. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007.
  2. ^ "YouGov / Sunday Times (Scotland) Survey Results" (PDF). YouGov. 7 September 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 November 2006.
  3. ^ Allardyce, Jason (10 September 2006). "Support doubles for Scottish independence". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 12 March 2007.
  4. ^ Davie, Edward (10 September 2006). "Support for Scottish independence rises". Epolitix. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
  5. ^ Mulholland, Hélène; Tempest, Matthew (2 November 2006). "Majority in Scotland wants independence, says poll". The Guardian.
  6. ^ Hennessy, Patrick; Kite, Melissa (27 November 2006). "Britain wants UK break up, poll shows". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  7. ^ "Vital gains forecast for SNP in swing from Labour". The Scotsman. 1 November 2006. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2007.
  8. ^ Miller, Bill (20 April 2007). "How SNP could win and lose at the same time". The Times.
  9. ^ "Voters get behind public services". BBC News. 4 April 2007.
  10. ^ "Scottish Omnibus Fieldwork Dates: March 29th-31st 2007" (PDF). ICM Research.