One summer evening last year a senior SNP figure shared their rather gloomy view with me about what was likely to happen at the forthcoming general election, then expected this autumn.

The insider was rather pessimistic about their party's prospects fearing many of its MPs would lose their seats as the public gave their verdict on that Spring's bitter leadership race and the ongoing police financial investigation, Operation Branchform.

However, they declared confidently: "Labour will start to make a mess of things and then we'll bounce back at Holyrood in 2026."

I remember thinking to myself 'this sounds like wishful thinking'.

But many months on, I'm now not so sure.

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The senior figure was after all correct in the predictions that the SNP would get a drubbing in the general election and that Labour's problems would mount (though I don't think they thought this would happen quite so quickly).

Could they also be right about the SNP bouncing back?

As Labour today marks its first 100 days in power the mood inside the SNP under leader John Swinney is on the up since the July 4 election when the party lost 39 seats to be left with just nine, while Labour saw the number of its Scottish MPs increase from one to 37.

First Minister John Swinney (Image: PA) "We were very very disappointed at the extent of the losses in July but we're more optimistic now," one senior SNP MSP reflected.

"It's not that we've gone from despondent to euphoric. But things are playing out in the way we expected. What is happening isn't a big surprise. But we're not complacent and know we have a lot of work to do."

Both First Minister John Swinney and his predecessor Humza Yousaf have acknowledged the improved circumstances their party is in since the July 4 defeat.

Meanwhile, the SNP's Westminster leader stated: "By any measure, Sir Keir Starmer has made a dreadful start. Westminster sets a very low bar for success but even the Labour Party’s most loyal disciples would be hard-pressed to deny we have witnessed one of the worst starts to a newly elected government in history."

The new positivity in the SNP seems to be borne out by opinion polls - one survey last week suggested Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was as unpopular as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage - and by recent local authority by election results with the SNP winning a slew of seats including in Argyll and Bute, Perth, Dundee.

SNP and Labour strategists will be closely watching how their parties perform in a a further raft of council by elections in the coming weeks in Glasgow, Falkirk and Inverclyde - called after Labour councillors step down following their election to Westminster. All three areas strong swings to Sir Keir Starmer's party in July.

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The senior SNP MSP was in no doubt the cheerier mood in his party was due to the missteps by the new Labour government - particularly over the withdrawal of the annual winter fuel payments of up to £300 from most pensioners.

They believed it was a decision that would continue to be damaging to Labour for some time to come - rejecting arguments from some that people would soon forget the matter and move on.

"The winter fuel payment controversy will come around every winter, at least for the next few years, people will be reminded of what they are not getting," noted the parliamentarian who pointed out the winter fuel payments was not the only problem, noting the row over Downing Street freebies and a controversy over Scottish Secretary Ian Murray's claim to have £150m to spend, when it turned out he didn't, as well as an apparent new climate of austerity under Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

""Getting into power and having to govern has clearly been very different than being in opposition. On a number of fronts Labour has clearly made a bit of a mess of things - there have been a lot of it unforced errors. Winter fuel payments is a big one, but the freebies, the Ian Murray £150m matter. During the election we talked a lot about austerity and warned about that prospect - Labour walked right into that."

The MSP went on to say that there was a belief in his party that new found support for Labour was "soft" with voters who switched from the SNP to Labour to "get rid of the Tories" readily prepared to switch back if the Labour government failed to meet their expectations.

"We always recognised that the support for Labour was a mile wide but only an inch deep...it was not built on strong foundations," they said.

There is a similar feeling among some in Scottish Labour who are disappointed with the record of the Starmer government's first 100 days and would have liked his party to remove the two child limit on benefits which provoked an early backbench rebellion.  The Prime Minister afterwards removed the Labour whip from the seven MPs who defied him to vote for an SNP amendment calling for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.

"Winter fuel payments, the two child limit, the freebies, the whole thing has been a mess," one Scottish Labour figure told The Herald earlier this week.

"A lot of these problems are not going to go away. I don't think voters will forget. They will see the massive contrast between cutting payments for poor pensioners while filling their boots with different freebies... I think there is concern across the party.

"The issue Starmer and the Labour party faces over the next four or five years is whether they will actually deliver for people. If they are going to make people's lives better." 

Even Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar appeared to concede this week that the first 100 days in power had not been the honeymoon period most observers would have expected.

"As a former dentist, let's call it teething problems," he told The Herald.

"It's been a challenge. If you look at actually the decisions this government has been making I accept that the challenge around the winter fuel payment is one that's taken a lot of attention."

With a Holyrood election looming, Mr Sarwar will be hoping for better days ahead including progress on the setting up of the public energy company Great British Energy in Aberdeen and legislation on a new deal for working people.

And he will certainly be wanting the next 100 days to be better than the first.