Voting intention and perceptions of party leaders

The Scottish Public Opinion Monitor measures voting intention Holyrood and Westminster elections and tracks changes over time.

Our poll in February 2011 was the first to recognise the shift in voting intention among Scots towards the SNP ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections. This was followed by our poll in April 2011, which provided the first indication that the SNP were likely to win the election by a substantial margin.

Our poll in December 2011 found that support for the SNP hit 51%, with the party extending their lead over Labour to 25 points.

Voting intention for the constituency element of a Scottish Parliament election


Perceptions of the party leaders is one of the key indicators of political success. Few parties win elections with unpopular leaders. The Scottish Public Opinion Monitor tracks satisfaction with the performance of the main party leaders at Holyrood. The chart below shows that Alex Salmond continues to enjoy a high satisfaction rating, currently the highest we have recorded since the Scottish Public Opinion Monitor began. Willie Rennie, the new leader the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and Ruth Davidson, the new leader of the Scottish Conservatives, both face the challenge of building public recognition as many Scots were unable to rate their performance.

Satisfaction with party leaders