John Swinney most popular political leader in Scotland, poll finds

John Swinney is the most popular political leader in Scotland, a YouGov poll has found, with the public also more likely to back the SNP over Labour.

The First Minister still scores a negative rating of minus 14 though, with 34% holding a favourable view and 48% holding an unfavourable one.

But it is higher than his Labour rivals, with only 20% of Scots having a positive opinion about Anas Sarwar compared to 49% who do not – giving a net favourability rating of minus 29.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has a net favourability rating of minus 36, with 27% approving of the UK Labour leader and 63% disapproving.

Scottish Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater hold net approval ratings of minus 24 and minus 27 respectively, while Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay has a minus 21 rating and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has a minus 20 rating.

However, a majority responded “don’t know” when asked about Ms Slater (52%), Mr Cole-Hamilton (61%) and Mr Findlay (60%). Some 44% picked the same response for Mr Harvie, the longest-serving leader of any major party in Scotland.

Of all the political figures polled, former first minister Nicola Sturgeon had the highest amount of favourable responses at 38%, although her net score at minus 16 was still lower than Mr Swinney’s as a majority of Scots (54%) held an unfavourable view of her.

Scots are also more likely to think the SNP will make the right decisions for Scotland when compared to Labour, although both parties suffer from low rates of confidence.

Asked about health and the economy, 31% of survey respondents expressed a lot or a fair amount of confidence in the SNP to make the right decisions on both issues, while 60% and 59% respectively held little or no confidence in the party.

For Scottish Labour, 22% said the party would make the right calls on health while 19% said the same for the economy. Sixty-nine per cent and 71% respectively held the opposite views.

YouGov said in all areas it tested, the SNP came ahead of Scottish Labour, although neither party gained the confidence of more than a third of Scots on any key issue.

Health continued to rank as the most important issue for a majority of Scots (55%), with the economy close behind at 54% and education in third at 31%.

Independence scored low on the list, with just 14% of people saying it should be the Scottish Government’s top priority, ranking joint-eighth alongside welfare.

Among 2024 SNP voters, independence rose to third place overall at 32%, although this is still far behind health (54%) and the economy (51%).

YouGov’s poll also put the No side ahead with 54% backing staying in the UK if another Scottish independence referendum was held, compared to 46% who supported Yes.

A significant proportion (72%) said there should not be a referendum within the next year, but this margin narrows when asked about the next five years, with 51% saying there should not but 38% saying there should.

Only when asked about the next decade do we see Scots lean towards having another referendum, with 46% saying there should be one and 38% saying there should not.

A total of 1,043 people aged over 16 in Scotland were polled by YouGov between March 17 and 21.