Following Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, many voters think that the possibility of Scottish independence is now more remote.
Three candidates were officially announced yesterday as the front-runners to succeed her as SNP leader.
According to a survey, 31% of adults in the UK think Ms. Sturgeon’s departure last week has decreased the likelihood that Scotland will vote to secede from the rest of the UK.
In contrast, only one in five respondents in the Savanta poll said that if the First Minister and SNP leader were gone, independence would become more likely. As of yesterday, Kate Forbes, Ash Regan, and Humza Yousaf have received sufficient support to have their names placed on the vote.
The survey results indicate that whoever prevails will face a difficult battle to regain independence’s momentum.
The debate has thus far centered on the contenders’ political and social ideologies. On March 27, a new leader will be revealed.
Early front-runner Kate Forbes, the finance secretary, was forced to reveal she opposed gay marriage and believed it was wrong to have children outside of marriage after her membership in the very conservative Free Church of Scotland came under fire.
Although he argues that he supports equal marriage despite his Muslim faith, Health Secretary Mr. Yousaf, who is widely regarded as Ms. Sturgeon’s chosen successor, has also been accused of being “under pressure from the mosque” to skip a vital vote on the issue.
Ash Regan was the last candidate to officially begin her campaign. She presented herself as a candidate for unity despite having left Ms. Sturgeon’s government over the contentious decision to allow transgender people as young as 16 to use “self-ID.”
Many SNP voters had not yet picked who to support, according to an early poll by The Big Partnership, but the majority of those who had, 28%, favoured Miss Forbes.
Both Labour and the Tories think that Ms. Sturgeon’s exit from the public eye will help the unionist cause and their chances of winning the next general election.
And on Thursday night, Labour gained a council seat in Aberdeen from the SNP with a substantial swing, providing an early sign of hope.
With the slogan “Labour is the change that Scotland needs – we’re coming for the SNP,” Aberdeen Labour celebrated Graeme Lawrence’s victory in the by-election. Lawrence identified himself as “Handsome Granda” in voter-provided leaflets that contained his email address.
According to the Savanta poll, opinions were divided on whether Ms. Sturgeon had improved her country at the end of her eight-year reign, with the same percentage (42%) believing she had not.
Unsurprisingly, she was more well-liked north of the border, with 54% of Scottish adults saying her tenure in charge went well, with 20% saying it was a resounding success.
More over half of those surveyed in the UK (56%) believed she made the correct choice in resigning.
“Our latest polling in both the UK and Scotland explicitly testifies to the influence Nicola Sturgeon has had on the political issues the union faces in the 21st century,” said Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta.
There is no sense that she is a pantomime villain south of the border, despite the fact that she is viewed more favorably in Scotland than the rest of the UK. She has gained a lot of respect and admirers.
