A NEW poll has found that Scots are split on the idea of a potential SNP-Labour coalition.
The two parties entering into an agreement after the 2026 Holyrood election was the most favoured option of Scots when asked about potential deals.
However, a majority still opposed the coalition between the pro-independence and unionist party.
The Survation poll, carried out by True North/Holyrood Sources, found 33 per cent of people in support of a coalition between the SNP and Labour, with 37 per cent opposed.
Meanwhile, 31 per cent of Scots would be in favour of an SNP-Green coalition, and 42 per cent against.
Just a fifth backed a coalition with the Tories, with 52% against. When it comes to the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the SNP, 26% were in favour and 40% against.
It comes after the same Survation poll found a big lead for the SNP on 53 seats. However, it also projected a narrow unionist majority with Labour needing the support of both the Tories and Reform UK to enter into power.
Former SNP MP Stewart McDonald (below) previously said that a partnership between Scotland’s two “centre-left parties” wouldn't be easy but could happen after a “messy” result in 2026.
Writing in The Spectator on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Scottish independence referendum last year, he wrote: “Over the 25 years of devolution, we’ve seen many different manifestations of government: minority administrations, a majority administration and formal coalitions.”
McDonald added: “Yet we’ve never seen the most obvious. A coalition between the SNP and Labour, Scotland’s two dominant centre left-parties — similar to the Irish model that saw Fine Gael and Fianna Fail rotate the office of taoiseach — is one we might want to consider in the event of a messy result in 2026.”
McDonald said it would be a “breath of fresh air”.
“I don’t suggest for a moment of course that this would be easy. It would take compromise and continuous effort to make it work. But it would, overnight, transform a political culture that has grown more interested in having an argument than winning an argument,” he went on.
