ONE in three Labour voters in Scotland favour a deal with the SNP if it helps keep the Conservatives out of power at Westminster, a new survey has revealed.

A new BMG poll for The Herald reveals the extent of Labour support for an alliance between the two parties north of the border.

Just over half were opposed to the prospect of a coalition with Nicola Sturgeon's party while 33 per cent would welcome a pact.

Read more: SNP by-election victory in Labour heartland signals power shift in Glasgow

The Scottish and UK sections of the Labour Party have been on a collision course over the proposal since shadow Scottish secretary Dave Anderson suggested in July that they "may well" have to consider some sort of arrangement to form a government at Westminster.

His comments prompted an angry response from Scottish Labour, which said it was opposed to any deal and marked a another dip in relations between Jeremy Corbyn’s team and Scottish Leader Kezia Dugdale.

The new BMG poll, which surveyed 1,010 adults across Scotland between September 28 and October 4, found that overall 42 per cent of Scots were opposed to an alliance, 26 per cent were in favour and the remainder said they did not know.

Among Labour voters 52 per cent were opposed while a third, 33 per cent, were in favour.

SNP supporters were also divided.

More than four in 10 (42 per cent) backed a coalition to ensure the Conservatives were unseated at Westminster, while 36 per cent rejected the prospect.

Read more: SNP by-election victory in Labour heartland signals power shift in Glasgow

The poll also found that 75 per cent of Conservative voters in Scotland and 51 per cent of Lib Dem supporters opposed a Labour/SNP deal.

Dr Michael Turner, head of polling at BMG Research, said: “Though most Scots are against Labour entering into a coalition with the SNP after the next General Election, the devil is in the detail.

"As always, it is those who feel they have most to lose who are against such a move, in this case the established Westminster parties; and those with most to gain who are for it, an insurgent Scottish National Party.”

He added that the results also showed that those who back Scottish independence view power at Westminster as an alternative avenue to achieving that goal.

“The results show that those who voted for Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom in 2014 are strongly against the SNP gaining power at Westminster, whereas those who voted "Yes" to independence are much more in favour of it (42 per cent in favour / 34 per cent against).”

Before last year's election Nicola Sturgeon offered to help former Labour leader Ed Miliband lock the Tories out of Downing Street in the event of a hung parliament.

The issue was eventually academic because the Conservatives won a majority of MPs.

But Mr Miliband faced intense pressure from his own party to rule out any kind of a coalition with the SNP.

In the end, just days before the vote, he told Ms Sturgeon during a televised leaders’ debate that he rejected the idea of an alliance with a pro-independence party, adding: "It's a 'no', I'm afraid."

Labour went on to lose 40 out of 41 Westminster seats in Scotland to the SNP.

Many in the party blame the Conservative election victory in part over the confusion surrounding Labour's stance.

Read more: SNP by-election victory in Labour heartland signals power shift in Glasgow

They claim many voters in Scotland were given the message that they could vote SNP and still get a Labour government at Westminster.

Meanwhile, south of the Border the Conservatives produced attack posters suggesting that the SNP would control a Labour government and ‘pickpocket’ money from English taxpayers.

Last month, Ian Murray, Labour's only MP in Scotland, accused leader Jeremy Corbyn of being "all over the place" on the question of an SNP deal and suggested his party was still flirting with the idea.

He said that while Scottish Labour had been clear it would not do a deal with the SNP he was unsure about the UK party.

“I'm not quite sure what the policy is,” he said. “Jeremy seems to be all over the place on it. And the senior team and the shadow defence secretary seem to be all over the place on it."

Shadow defence secretary Clive Lewis has also suggested that Labour should do a deal with the SNP, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats, arguing that the parties have a "common set" of values..

BMG surveyed 1,010 Scottish adults

Speaking about the BMG poll, Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “The default position of any kind of ‘progressive alliance’ necessitates that all the parties in any such alliance are progressive to begin with. Alliances are doomed to fail if they are built on shaky and altogether phoney foundations.

“Any alliance requires substantive and concrete proof that the progressive credentials of all members are beyond question and not based on hollow and misleading rhetoric.

“There is nothing progressive about the SNP: a party that divides people on that basis of nation rather than unite us on the basis of class; that wants to divide the trade union movement, no matter the cost to working people in Scotland, England or indeed elsewhere in these isles; and one that believes constitutional change ‘transcends’ everything else — even if that means economic decline for our country and the vast majority of Scots.”