Only one-in-four Scots think the country is heading in the right direction and half believe Scotland is on the wrong path, a poll has found.
MSPs are expected to back Humza Yousaf to be Scotland’s sixth first minister after he was named the new leader of the SNP at the end of an almost six-week campaign to succeed Ms Sturgeon.
Full unlimited access to The Herald is only £2 for 2 months.
👉 Click here to get this offer
But ahead of the Holyrood vote on Tuesday a poll by Ipsos found half of adults north of the border felt things in Scotland were going in the wrong direction as Nicola Sturgeon’s more than eight-year rule as First Minister comes to an end, with just a quarter saying the country was on the right track.
Across all the policy areas asked about – from the NHS to managing the economy – more felt the Scottish Government had done a bad job than felt they had done a good job.
Humza Yousaf served as the Health Secretary in Nicola Sturgeon’s government (Jane Barlow/PA)
Rachel Ormston, research director at Ipsos in Scotland, said the findings underlined “Humza Yousaf’s very full in-tray”.
“He takes office at a point when the Scottish public is feeling pretty gloomy about the direction of their country, and negative about the Scottish Government performance across a range of key areas,” she said.
“Addressing these challenges and turning around public perceptions, particularly on the NHS and cost of living, will no doubt feature strongly on his first to-do list.”
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf calls for party unity as he narrowly beats Kate Forbes
Ipsos polled 1,023 people aged 16 and older between March 17 and 21.
While 50% said that generally speaking things were heading in the wrong direction and 25% felt they were going in the right direction, 19% said neither and 6% of respondents were unsure.
The first two figures were similar to those recorded in Ipsos polls in October 2022 and January 2023.
As in earlier polls, SNP voters were more optimistic about Scotland’s direction. Some 37% of those who picked the SNP on their 2021 Holyrood constituency vote said things were going in the right direction.
Humza Yousaf beat Kate Forbes and Ash Regan to be named leader of the SNP (Craig Brough/PA)
But Ipsos said this figure is a little down from 44% earlier in the year.
People north of the border were particularly negative about how good a job the Scottish Government has done of improving the NHS.
Some 53% told pollsters it had done a bad job, while 23% said it had done a good job, a net rating of minus 30.
A negative net rating means more people than not think the Government is doing a bad job, while a positive rank means the opposite.
On improving people’s own standards of living, 45% said it had done a bad job, while 21% said it had done a good job, a rating of minus 24.
On improving living standards for people on low incomes, 27% said the Government had done a good job while 45% said it had done a bad job, a net of minus 18.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf to be new First Minister
Asked about managing Scotland’s economy, 30% said it had done a good job and 46% said it had done a bad job, giving a net minus 16.
On improving the education system, 26% felt the Scottish Government had done a good job while 45% felt it had done a bad job – a net score of minus 19.
Ipsos said the ratings were very similar to polls in March 2022 and January 2023.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel