The SNP has described 2012 as a year of progress that saw the party build on the landslide backing that voters gave the party in the Scottish Parliament election in 2011.
An Ipsos-MORI poll last month revealed that the Scottish Government continues to be popular in delivering for Scotland and working to secure economic recovery, with net satisfaction with the Scottish Government at +15% compared to a rating of -40% for the Westminster Government.
The poll follows the SNP’s victory in the Local Government elections in May – in which the party emerged for the first time in its history in local elections with the most first preference votes and also gained the most seats. Additionally, the SNP was the party with the most number of first preference votes in 16 councils, compared to 14 for Labour.
A super-poll commissioned by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft - which had a Scottish sample of 703 voters - last month gave the SNP a six point lead over Labour on Westminster voting intentions.
Meanwhile, the most recent Holyrood voting intentions poll at the end of October put support for the SNP at 45% for both constituency and regional votes – the same level of constituency support that the party achieved in the 2011 election and one point more than was achieved in the regional vote.
Commenting, SNP Business Convener Derek Mackay MSP said:
“In May we won the local government elections, emerging as the party with the highest number of councillors in Scotland and the largest share of the vote for the first time. And SNP support in the polls is still at the record levels which delivered success in 2011.
“The latest polling on independence also shows that the referendum is there to be won by Yes - backing for an independent Scotland is strong, and ahead on certain scenarios - and we believe that this support will grow through 2013 as the debate moved from process to substance."
