Catholics help SNP to record win in Scotland

The surge of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in last week’s general election is down in part to support from Catholics, writes Christopher Lamb.

A new YouGov poll, commissioned by The Tablet, found that 48 per cent of Catholics in Scotland had planned to vote SNP last week. The party won a vast majority of seats north of the border, decimating the Labour Party representation, which had relied on the Catholic vote.

Among the casualties was Jim Murphy, the leader of Labour in Scotland and a Catholic, while the poll found that 38 per cent of Scottish Catholics planned to vote for the party. Other Christian denominations in Scotland were less supportive of the SNP, with just 33 per cent saying they would vote for the party.