IPSOS: Voters think Scottish Government could do better on economy and NHS, survey finds

Half of Scots think Humza Yousaf’s Government is doing badly when it comes to managing the economy – with research also finding 55% say the Scottish Government is performing badly when it comes to the NHS.

But while the Ipsos poll found there are areas where the “public see considerable room for improvement” from the SNP at Holyrood, it also suggested voters are “not necessarily inclined to think” Labour would do a better job of governing Scotland.

The results of the research were released days after Yousaf’s first Programme for Government put the focus on growing the economy to help tackle poverty.

But the results showed that 50% of Scots thought the Scottish Government was doing a bad job when it came to the management of the economy – twice the number (25%) who said the Government was doing well in this area.

That gave the Scottish Government a net score of -25, down from -16 in March, when Yousaf took over as First Minister.

Meanwhile, 55% of the 1,019 adults questioned said the Government was doing a bad job when it came to improving the NHS in Scotland. With only 22% saying SNP ministers are doing a good job of this, the Ipsos Scotland poll gave them a net score of -32.

And while 29% of Scots said they thought Labour would do a better job than the SNP when it comes to managing the economy, 23% said they thought Anas Sarwar’s party would do worse, and 29% said it would make no difference, with 19% not sure.

Similar figures were recorded for the NHS, with 29% believing Labour would do better, 31% saying it would make no difference and 21% saying Labour would be worse than the SNP, with 19% saying they did not know.

It comes as the research, carried out between August 18 and 23, gave all party leaders in Scotland a negative net approval rating from the public.

Sarwar’s was the least negative, with 26% of voters having a favourable perception of him compared to 34% who had an unfavourable view of the Scottish Labour leader, giving him a net rating of -8, which was down from -4 in March.

While almost a third (31%) favoured Yousaf, 43% had an unfavourable view of the First Minister, putting his net rating at -12.

However, this is up from the score of -20 that was recorded in March, when he was competing to become SNP leader and First Minister.

Douglas Ross had the lowest rating, with only 12% of voters thinking favourably of him, compared to the 59% who were unfavourable, giving him a net score of -47.

Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater meanwhile had net scores of -18 and -19 respectively, with Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton also on -19.

Commenting on the poll, Ipsos Scotland managing director Emily Gray said: “Humza Yousaf’s first Programme for Government places a strong emphasis on growing the economy, alongside tackling poverty and inequality and delivering on public services.

“These findings indicate the Scottish public see considerable room for improvement in the SNP Government’s performance across all these areas.

“Perceptions of their handling of the economy, in particular, are more negative now than when we last asked this in March.

“However, the public is not necessarily inclined to think a Labour Scottish Government would do a better job.”