Opinion polling for the 2007 Scottish Parliament election explained

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

data-sort-type="number" rowspan="2"Pollster/clientDate(s)
conducted
LabSNPConLib DemSSPGreenOthers
data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"data-sort-type="number" style="background:;" data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"
2007 Scottish Parliament election32.2%32.9%16.6%16.2%---
YouGov/The Daily Telegraph2 May 200731%37%13%14%--5%
ICM/The Guardian/The Scotsman30 April 200732%34%13%16%--5%
Populus/The Times30 April 200729%33%13%15%--10%
YouGov/Daily Telegraph26 April 200730%39%13%15%--4%
YouGov/ESRC23 April 200730%38%12%15%---
YouGov/Sunday Times20 April 200730%37%14%15%--4%
mruk/Herald19 April 200734%38%11%13%---
Populus/Times17 April 200730%34%13%18%--6%
Scottish Opinion/Mail on Sunday15 April 200735%32%13%15%---
ICM/Scotsman3 April 200727%32%13%19%5%-4%
TNS System Three/STV1 April 200734%39%13%11%--3%
YouGov/Daily Telegraph28 March 200729%35%13%14%--9%
mruk/Herald27 March 200738%34%10%15%--3%
Scottish Opinion/Daily Mail26 March 200728%34%11%11%-9%-
Populus/Times25 March 200728%38%14%15%--6%
ICM/Scotsman26 February 200729%34%16%16%1%--
ICM/Scotsman29 January 200731%33%13%17%3%-3%
YouGov/Sunday Times12 January 200729%35%13%18%1%2%2%
YouGov/Channel 48 January 200731%33%14%14%1%5%4%
ICM/Scotsman23 November 200629%34%13%17%3%2%2%
ICM/Scotsman30 October 200630%32%14%15%4%3%3%
Scottish Opinion/Sunday Mail20 October 200632%35%11%16%2%-2%
YouGov/Sunday Times7 September 200630%29%14%18%2%5%4%
TNS System Three/Herald29 August 200636%28%12%17%4%3%-
TNS System Three/Herald1 August 200637%29%13%14%3%2%-
TNS System Three/Herald4 July 200637%31%11%14%3%3%-
Ipsos MORI1 July 200628%30%15%19%1%4%3%
2003 Scottish Parliament election34.9%23.8%16.5%15.1%6.2%-3.5%

Regional vote

data-sort-type="number" rowspan="2"Pollster/clientDate(s)
conducted
LabSNPConLib DemGreenSSPOthers
data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"data-sort-type="number" style="background:;" data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"data-sort-type="number" style="background:;"
2007 Scottish Parliament election29.2%31.0%13.9%11.3%4.0%0.6%
YouGov/The Daily Telegraph2 May 200727%32%13%10%9%-9%
ICM/The Guardian/The Scotsman30 April 200729%30%13%16%4%3%5%
Populus/The Times30 April 200728%31%14%15%4%1%7%
YouGov/Daily Telegraph26 April 200727%31%13%11%9%3%7%
YouGov/ESRC23 April 200727%32%14%12%---
YouGov/The Sunday Times20 April 200728%35%13%13%--11%
mruk/The Herald19 April 200736%37%11%11%3%--
Populus/The Times17 April 200727%34%14%18%3%1%3%
Scottish Opinion/Mail on Sunday15 April 200734%31%12%13%5%--
ICM/Scotsman3 April 200727%31%12%17%5%5%3%
TNS System Three/STV1 April 200725%36%11%13%6%3%7%
YouGov/The Daily Telegraph28 March 200727%33%15%12%6%2%5%
mruk/The Herald27 March 200737%35%10%14%3%-1%
Scottish Opinion/Daily Mail26 March 200728%32%10%11%10%--
Populus/The Times25 March 200730%35%14%14%4%1%2%
ICM/The Scotsman26 February 200728%32%15%17%4%2%-
ICM/The Scotsman29 January 200727%33%14%17%5%3%2%
YouGov/The Sunday Times12 January 200730%32%14%14%5%1%4%
YouGov/Channel 48 January 200728%33%15%11%7%1%4%
ICM/Scotsman23 November 200626%31%12%19%6%4%2%
ICM/Scotsman30 October 200628%28%14%17%6%4%3%
Scottish Opinion/Sunday Mail20 October 200625%28%11%26%4%5%1%
YouGov/The Sunday Times7 September 200627%29%14%15%8%2%5%
TNS System Three/The Herald29 August 200628%27%11%19%8%6%-
TNS System Three/The Herald1 August 200629%32%10%15%8%4%-
TNS System Three/Herald4 July 200629%33%9%17%5%5%-
Ipsos MORI1 July 200626%28%16%19%6%1%4%
2003 Scottish Parliament election29.3%20.9%15.5%11.8%6.9%6.7%9.0%

Seat predictions

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

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.

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

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

Notes and References

  1. News: Labour turmoil as Scots back independence . . 10 September 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070310221051/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspapers/sunday_times/scotland/article634520.ece . 10 March 2007 . dead.
  2. Web site: YouGov / Sunday Times (Scotland) Survey Results. YouGov. https://web.archive.org/web/20061102055910/http://www.yougov.com/archives/pdf/STI060101004_1.pdf. 7 September 2006. 2 November 2006. dead.
  3. News: Jason . Allardyce . The Sunday Times . 10 September 2006 . Support doubles for Scottish independence . https://web.archive.org/web/20070312193759/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article634289.ece . 12 March 2007 . dead.
  4. News: Epolitix . Davie . Edward . 10 September 2006 . Support for Scottish independence rises . https://web.archive.org/web/20070930222021/http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200609/823da07e-64bf-4829-8cf4-968e5ca885de.htm . 30 September 2007 . dead.
  5. Web site: Majority in Scotland wants independence, says poll. Hélène. Mulholland. Matthew. Tempest. 2 November 2006. The Guardian.
  6. News: Britain wants UK break up, poll shows. Hennessy. Patrick. Kite. Melissa. 27 November 2006. The Daily Telegraph. 27 January 2022. subscription.
  7. News: Vital gains forecast for SNP in swing from Labour . . 1 November 2006 . 29 November 2007 . https://archive.today/20120712182130/http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/vital-gains-forecast-for-snp-in-swing-from-labour-1-723547 . 12 July 2012 . dead .
  8. News: Bill . Miller . How SNP could win and lose at the same time . . 20 April 2007 . subscription.
  9. News: Voters get behind public services . . 4 April 2007.
  10. Web site: Scottish Omnibus Fieldwork Dates: March 29th-31st 2007. ICM Research.