The SNP's falling poll ratings is primarily down to First Minister Humza Yousaf, a top pollster has claimed.
Professor Sir John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde, said that the past year had been the most challenging for the Nationalists since the SNP took office at Holyrood in 2007.
In an analysis, he wrote that the resignation and arrest of Nicola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell, who have since been released without charge, was not the main catalyst for the steep decline in the SNP’s poll ratings.
“Twelve months ago, the party stood on average at 45% in polls of voting intention for Westminster — in line with the party’s performance in the 2019 UK election,” he wrote on the website Bylines Scotland.
“Although Labour had overtaken the Conservatives as the second most popular party north of the border, it was still as much as 21% behind and seemed no more than a distant threat.
“Yet in polls taken since the arrest of Sturgeon at the beginning of June, support for the SNP is down to 36% — as weak a position as it has been at any stage since the 2014 referendum.”
Last month a poll published in The Times suggested that Labour was poised to overtake the SNP at the next Westminster election for the first time since 2010.
The Panelbase Poll indicated that Sir Keir Starmer’s party was in line to win 26 seats, a big rise from the one they hold now.
If replicated at an election the SNP would lose more than half of their 45 seats.