Labour majority ‘difficult but do-able’ says Douglas Alexander

Scottish Labour is very unlikely to win back the voters it lost to the SNP during the independence referendum in time for the general election, two new surveys suggest.

People who voted for independence have coalesced around the SNP and their vote is hardening, while Labour has become a party for No voters and its standing among nationalists has plummeted, analysis by the British Election Study (BES) has found.

Labour election coordinator Douglas Alexander said that winning a majority will be “difficult but do-able”, following a new YouGov poll for the Sunday Times which found that Labour has surged into a four-point lead across the UK.

But 1,300 Scottish voters polled by BES between March 6-13 puts Labour 17 points behind the SNP in Scotland, with the SNP on 44% and Labour on 27%.