Jez we cannae: Scottish Labour going backwards under Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn has failed to improve Labour's position in Scotland, with the party set to lose more than a dozen seats in this year's Scottish elections, a new poll has found.
Just 21% of Scottish people plan to vote Labour in the constituency section of the Holyrood elections, down from 28% in February last year, according to the Survation poll for the Daily Record. Support for the SNP remains solid on 52%.
If borne out in May, Labour would lose 13 seats on the Scottish parliament, with both the Greens and the Lib Dems picking up seats as a result. The SNP would also pick up one extra seat.
Corbyn's supporters had hoped that his more left-wing platform would improve Labour's position in Scotland, where their opponents have previously derided them as "red Tories".
However, today's poll finds little support for Corbyn, who has a net approval rating of -17% compared to +27% for Nicola Sturgeon among all Scottish voters.
Even Labour voters seem less than impressed, with almost a third saying they have an unfavourable view of the Labour leader. Overall his net approval rating with Scottish Labour voters is just +6%.
Corbyn could face a leadership crisis if poor results in Scotland are combined with poor results in the English local elections and the London mayoral elections.
However, the latest London polling suggests that Labour are likely to win back City Hall.
This, combined with the historical tendency for the main opposition party to pick up significant numbers of seats in local elections, means that Corbyn's position is more secure than many of his critics in the party would hope.
