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Sniping at SNP fails to rally Scots Labour’s hopes

JIM MURPHY’S frenetic attacks on the SNP have failed to pull Scottish Labour out of the voting poll doldrums, YouGov stats showed yesterday.

The latest election data puts Labour unchanged on 27 per cent — but a two point nationalist drop to 46 per cent would still see a near-total wipeout of Labour’s 40 Westminster seats in May.

Polling was carried out between Tuesday and Thursday, just before Mr Murphy unleashed his latest attack on the SNP’s “Barnett bombshell.”

The poster — a rerun of the 1992 Tory campaign against a supposed Labour tax bombshell — claims the SNP demand for “full fiscal autonomy” or “devo-max” would result in the Scottish economy losing 138,000 jobs.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale said the loss of the Barnett formula, which has led to public spending typically being higher north of the border, in favour of full fiscal autonomy would lead to a £6.5 billion cut.

“That means massive spending cuts over and above what we would get from the Tories winning in May,” she said.

“Huge cuts to the budget for our NHS and our schools — it’s austerity on a scale never seen before in Scotland, it’s austerity max.”

The YouGov poll also shows the Tories up three points on 18 per cent, the Lib Dems unchanged at 4 per cent and the Scottish Greens unchanged at 3 per cent, while Ukip is down two points at 2 per cent.

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