Andrew Gimson’s recent article about Mohammed Sarwar – once a Labour MP in Glasgow, now Governor of the Punjab – provoked a discussion below the line about the following dilemna.
The SNP threaten the unity of the country. So a Labour revival in Scotland is in the Conservative interest if it takes more seats from the SNP than the Tories as a result.
Labour is the Party’s main competitor at Westminster. So such a Labour revival in Scotland is not in the Conservative interest, because it could help to bring about a Keir Starmer premiership.
What do Conservative activists themselves think? We put the question in the monthly survey and the results are decisive. Sixteen per cent reject either choice – a reasonably though not especially high percentage by the usual standard of the poll.
Eleven per cent would rather see the SNP than Labour thrive in the event of a forced choice. Sixty-seven per, just over two in three respondents, plump for Labour.
Our surveys increasingly suggest that the caricature of Party members as English nationalists, fixated on apparent party advantage in the event of Scottish independence, is inaccurate. Most are red white and blue all the way through.