Keiran Pedley

Could Scotland decide the election result?

'Since Nicola Sturgeon’s surprise departure from Scottish politics, it is worth dwelling on just how far the SNP have fallen' (Photo: Getty)

The starting gun for the general election has been fired. This 2019 parliament is over and we will have a new government in Westminster in six weeks’ time.

There have been many significant political inflection points this parliament. Partygate of course. The departure of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss’s brief period as Prime Minister. Arguably as important as any of this is the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon in March 2023.

Since her surprise departure from Scottish politics, it is worth dwelling on just how far the SNP have fallen. 

At the 2019 general election, they won 45 per cent of the vote and 48 of Scotland’s 59 seats. At the height of the pandemic, more than seven in ten Scots were satisfied with the job Nicola Sturgeon was doing as First Minister. Even the month she resigned, following a mix of personal scandal and political crises, she still had net positive favourability rating with the Scottish public.

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