The SNP claimed yesterday that polling evidence showed the party maintaining its momentum in the wake of their Glasgow East by-election last week, putting it ten points ahead of Labour.

The SNP claimed yesterday that polling evidence showed the party maintaining its momentum in the wake of their Glasgow East by-election last week, putting it ten points ahead of Labour.

They say that an analysis of the Scottish segments of UK polls in the course of July, including two polls this week, puts them on 37% compared to 27% for Labour, well up on the only purely Scottish poll a month ago. The Tories are on 17% on this analysis, and the LibDems on 14%, with others totalling 5%.

The Nationalist claim this aggregate of polling evidence points to them winning 35 seats in a general election, compared to just 13 for Labour.

Angus Robertson MP, leader of the SNP at Westminster, said: "This poll of polls for July shows the SNP making astonishing progress with a significant sample size of 770 voters being polled in Scotland in July.

"The momentum in Scottish politics is with the SNP as the real poll in Glasgow East has shown."

He said the SNP had maintained its poll lead over Labour in all opinion polls, backing up the evidence from the Scotland-wide poll at the beginning of the month which put the SNP ahead for a Westminster election for the first time.

"The SNP were already storming ahead of Labour in the run up to our victory in Glasgow East. We showed there that no Labour seat is safe in Scotland and these figures clearly back that up," he said.