When is a disaster also a miracle? When it allows Scottish Labour to simultaneously endure its worst result since 1931 and live to fight another day, that’s when.
Yesterday’s ComRes/ITV poll is the best news Labour has enjoyed in months. That’s how grim it has been for Labour lately. A poll of voters in 40 Labour constituencies which puts them six points behind the SNP may not be much of a lifeline but it’s the only lifeline available to the erstwhile people’s party. It will have to do.
Sure, this poll suggests the SNP could take as many as 28 Labour seats meaning that the nationalists would, probably, win something like 44 of the 59 Scottish constituencies. This is not exactly a good result for Labour; it’s still a better result than those indicated by previous polls. (It suggests a national share of 30 percent which is, gosh, an improvement.)
There is still, despite everything, a way back for Labour.
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