Labour minister: SNP too 'marmite' to win next Holyrood election

Blair McDougall argued that to take Labour's poor polling numbers at face value "completely misunderstands where Scottish politics is right now".

He insisted his party can stitch together a winning coalition of voters in a way the nationalists are no longer capable of doing.

A Survation poll this week showed the SNP under John Swinney has opened up a huge 17-point lead on Scottish Labour in Holyrood.

But Mr McDougall, who was appointed a minister in the Department for Business and Trade earlier this month, said this was not the full story.

"I think looking at polls like that completely misunderstands where Scottish politics is now," the East Renfrewshire MP said. "You have an SNP who are stuck in a core vote strategy where only diehard nationalists are now voting for them.

"And as we've shown in my area, as we've shown in Hamilton and Rutherglen [by-elections], Labour is able to stitch together a coalition of voters, and that's what's going to determine what happens at the Scottish Parliament elections. It's the party that can pull together a wide coalition of support. The SNP are too marmite to do that."

He added: "When it comes down to real voting, when people are making real decisions, it's Scottish Labour that's able to stitch together a coalition."

Mr McDougall, who was previously the campaign director of Better Together during the 2014 referendum, said we live in a "volatile era" of politics.

"But when people come to make decisions, the SNP are not able to build that coalition of support they once were under Nicola Sturgeon, where they were able to bring together diehard nationalists with a broad coalition of voters," he said.

"They've given up on that. Labour has proven that we can still do that."

Asked if he was saying the polls are not reflecting the reality on the ground, the minister said: "I think the polls reflect the fact that politics is more volatile. I think politics is volatile and I think people across the board and across the world don't have the same tribal loyalty to political parties that they once had.

"The task next year, which Scottish Labour and Anas have shown we are able to do, is to stitch together a wide coalition of voters.

"We are able to do that. We've shown that again and again in real electoral tests, rather than opinion polls, and I think that's what we'll do again next year."

Elsewhere, Mr McDougall, the minister for small business and economic transformation, insisted securing a deal on whisky tariffs with the US is near the top of the UK government’s agenda.

"This is, if not the top, then very near the top of the government's negotiations with the United States on that wider economic package,” he said.

He also said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wants to remove the two-child benefit cap, but “it has to be affordable”.

SNP MSP Stuart McMillan said: "Even by Blair McDougall's standards, it takes some amount of spin to put a positive light on a poll which has Labour trailing by 17 points.

"The SNP is focused on making Scotland a better place to live. NHS waiting times are coming down and GP numbers are up, our young people achieved excellent exam results this summer, and we’ve just saved commuters hundreds of pounds by scrapping peak rail fares for good.”