The battle to be the SNP’s main opposition at Holyrood has taken another twist with the Conservatives gaining ground on Labour, according to a new poll.
A survey by the online company Panelbase for The Sunday Times and Heart FM found support for the SNP at 50% for the constituency vote and 48% for the regional vote.
Backing for the Tories in Scotland stood at 17% in both the constituency and regional votes.
That is an increase of three percentage points in the constituency vote, and two percentage points in the regional vote compared with Panelbase’s last survey in September.
Labour lost ground, dropping two points to 21% in the constituency vote, and three to 19% in the regional vote.
The Liberal Democrats recorded support of 6% and 7% for the constituency and regional polls respectively, while the Greens are on 3% for constituency and 5% for regional.
If the result is replicated in May, the SNP would win 73 seats up four from the current level of 69 Labour 26, the Conservatives 20, the Liberal Democrats six and the Greens three, analysis by the Scotland Votes website suggested.
It came as a Sunday newspaper reported Jeremy Corbyn is preparing for big losses in the Holyrood election.
A senior Scottish Conservative source said: “The election campaign hasn’t even started and Jeremy Corbyn is running up Labour’s white flag over the Scottish Parliament. ”
A Labour spokesman hit back, saying: “At every election since 1997 the Tories have promised a revival. At the end of the day people in Scotland know that Ruth Davidson is just another Tory like Cameron and Osborne, content to cut local services like school budgets.”
In terms of approval ratings for party leaders, Nicola Sturgeon leads the way with a positive rating of +23, but Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale on -13 is polling worse than her predecessor Jim Murphy.
Ms Davidson is faring better than her Scottish Labour counterpart, on -9, while Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie is also marginally ahead of Ms Dugdale on -12.