STEPHEN Flynn has said “the most important poll is on July 4,” as he was asked about reports the number of SNP MPs could halve at the upcoming election.
It comes after the latest poll by Survation for True North suggested Scottish Labour are on course to win 28 seats.
Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News, Flynn was told “it looks as though your numbers could halve at the next election”.
"It looks as though your numbers could halve at the next election?" - @KayBurley "The most important poll is on the 4th of July" - SNP Westminster leader @StephenFlynnSNPhttps://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3 📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/b5KlOROazo
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 29, 2024
The SNP picked up 48 MPs in 2019 but defections and a by-election means the tally now stands at 43.
Responding to Burley, Flynn said: “Well listen this is the exciting thing about an election. Polls swing one way, they swing the other way and what we know is the most important poll is on July 4 on independence day no less.
“And you know the thing for us is we need to be talking about the cost of living crisis, the support that people deserve for their mortgages, their food bills, their energy bills, the economic growth that we need to see.
“And you know we’re a little bit different from the Westminster consensus in that regard, we want to see access to the single market, we want to see freedom of movement and we want to see doubling down of investment in net zero.
“We want to see £28 billion of investment, not just the £5bn that Keir Starmer’s rowed back on but perhaps most important of all we want to see an end to Tory austerity.
“The IFS (Institute for Fiscal Studies) says there’s £18bn of public sector cuts coming, a conspiracy of silence between the Labour Party and the Tory party, we reject that, we want to see investment in our NHS because it’s the right thing to do.”
Retaining all seats
Flynn also insisted his party can retain all of its Scottish seats at Westminster and win even more.
He said he is confident his party’s “positive message of putting Scotland first” will help it “get over the line and deliver for the people of Scotland again”.
The SNP’s Westminster leader said: “I’m looking to retain every single seat that we have, and also looking to win other seats from other parties, because that is what you do in an election.
“I’m very confident with the policy platform that we’re going to put forward, with the clear fact that we are the ones who always put Scotland first at Westminster, unlike all the other political parties.”
Last year, the SNP backed a policy declaring that winning a “majority of seats at the General Election in Scotland” should enable the Scottish Government to “begin immediate negotiations” on independence.
Flynn said this should still apply, even if the SNP loses seats.
He said: “The winner in an election gets to take forward their manifesto and ultimately it will be for us to seek to do that.
“The big question here, and it is a question Keir Starmer (above) is going to have to face up, is at what point does he recognise the democratic views of the Scottish people?
“We know the Conservative Party don’t, whether that is Theresa May, Liz Truss, Boris Jonson, Rishi Sunak.
“Is Keir Starmer seriously going to go into the election and say he is going to stick to the same policy platform as the Conservative Party when it comes to the people of Scotland, 50% of whom back Scottish independence?”
