Voters 'Will Switch Big' To Labour

Voters in Scotland will switch late and switch big'' to Labour in the general election, according to the party's Scottish leader Jim Murphy. Mr Murphy has predicted a late surge in support ahead of the May vote, similar to the gains made by the SNP in the final few weeks of the 2011 Scottish election campaign. He claims Labour can hold on to the 41 seats it won in 2010, with the party also targeting the East Dunbartonshire seat currently held by Lib Dem minister Jo Swinson. According to recent opinion polls, Labour is facing a near wipeout north of the border at the hands of the SNP. A recent Ipsos Mori poll showed that twice as many Scots are to vote for the SNP as will back Labour, with some commentators suggesting the latter could return just four MPs to Westminster. As he reflected on his first 50 days as leader, Mr Murphy said he expected the polls to change as the election gets closer. The SNP said the claims werearrogant'' and that Labour have not given any reason as to why voters will back them. Mr Murphy said: Increasingly between now and May there will be a contrast between a refreshed Scottish Labour Party under new management, bursting with ideas, versus an SNP Scottish Government that seems to have just run out of things on its to-do list.'' He said that supporters will move back to Labour in three stages - listening to the party, considering the party and then voting for it.Our sense is that as we move through these stages of people listening, considering and then voting, our sense is that these polls will switch late and they will switch big.'' I have said that Scotland is listening to the Scottish Labour Party again.We wouldn't have expected people to become overnight converts, but I have just got a sense that people are on a journey back towards us.'' He compared his party's possible change in fortunes with polling in the 2011 Scottish parliamentary elections, which saw the SNP take the lead from Labour with just a month to go before the vote. The nationalists went on to win an unprecedented majority at Holyrood. Focus groups and internal polling by Labour suggest people want change, Mr Murphy said. One of the things that is coming up is change,'' he said.In our focus groups and in our polling, the overriding emotion that people have is change. Many want their lives and most want their country to be different." Which of the parties in Scotland in a UK election can offer the most compelling vision of change?'' SNP general election campaign director Angus Robertson said his party will take nothing for granted in the build-up to the election.Jim Murphy has been saying some pretty oddball things in a desperate attempt to get noticed, but this must be the strangest one yet,'' Mr Robertson said. The arch-Blairite is actually trying to spin the fact that under his leadership, Labour's opinion poll position in Scotland is 40 points worse than it was when Iain Gray was leader."And Mr Murphy has also clearly defined that losing just one seat in Scotland at the General Election represents a failure for his leadership." Mr Murphy arrogantly insists that voters will just go back to his party without giving any reason why, as if Labour had a divine right to rule Scotland - thus demonstrating that he is part of Labour's problem in Scotland, not the solution."Jim Murphy is happy telling people how they're going to vote in May, but he still can't even tell his constituents whether or not he'll be a candidate, which is farcical.'' This is hugely inspiring - and while we will be doing everything we can to persuade them to vote SNP, it is great to see people so enthused by politics.''