General election latest: Latest poll has more bad news for the Tories - as Labour accused of 'humiliating' Abbott (2024)

With the general election campaign officially under way, what better time to keep a close eye on the latest polling?

The Sky News live poll tracker - collated and updated by our Data and Forensics team - aggregates various surveys to indicate how voters feel about the different political parties.

See the latest update below - and you can read more about the methodology behind the trackerhere.

Sky'spolitical correspondent Darren McCaffrey was in the room during the SNP's election launch.

He points out that, speaking to people behind the scenes, there is "an expectation that the SNP are going to lose MPs".

"It's just - frankly - how many they're going to lose."

At the last election, the SNP won 48 MPs of 59 in Scotland.

Darren points out it is clear the SNP think Labour are the party likely to take seats off them.

He says: "If you listen to John Swinney's speech, it was mostly aimed at the Labour Party.

"Attack line after attack line on Labour - when it came to migration, when it came to Brexit, when it came to the NHS.

"And that is a sign the SNP are having to turn their guns on Labour."

But Darren caveats this by noting Mr Swinney is popular in many parts of Scotland, including some of those outside the SNP membership, and he is also an experienced campaigner.

"He's been here before, he's a good orator, he's very relaxed in these situations," Darren says, describing Mr Swinney as "formidable" - and that this could save some MPs for the party.

The SNP leader finishes his address, thanking the audience for respecting the Q&A with journalists.

He is then seen posing for pictures with the slate of Commons hopefuls behind him.

Asked about his relationship with Westminster, John Swinney says his engagements with the likes of Gordon Brown and Theresa May were "pretty constructive".

But things went downhill with the advent of Boris Johnson.

Mr Swinney says that if Sir Keir Starmer becomes prime minister and acts in a "serious, mature and respectful" manner with regards to Scotland, then he will have "absolutely no issues" negotiating with the SNP.

Another journalist asks whether Mr Swinney would seek to negotiate for the powers to hold another independence referendum.

The SNP lost a court battle to try to take this power in recent years.

But Mr Swinney says of course he wants this power - and that he wants to "engage" in discussions to try and offer a choice to Scottish people on whether they want independence.

Sky'spolitical correspondent Darren McCaffrey asks John Swinney whether the SNP believes it needs to reduce migration and employ more Scots, and what victory looks like to the party.

Mr Swinney says Brexit removed tens of thousands of people from Scotland and the biggest economic threat to Scotland is the hostility to migration in the UK.

He adds that migration helps drive growth, and so implies he would want more people entering Scotland.

On what victory looks like to the SNP, Mr Swinney says he wants the SNP to be the "largest party in Scotland" after 4 July.

As part of the Q&A, the BBC asks a question about the logic in the SNP stating that leaving a 50-year-old union like the EU has caused damage to Scotland - but leaving a 300-year-old union like the UK would be advantageous.

At this, the crowd boos and jeers the journalist.

Mr Swinney calms the crowd, and tells them in the spirit of open debate not to cheer, boo, or applaud any questions or answers.

The same crowd then applauds their leader's position.

Moving to answer the question, Mr Swinney says the idea of independence from the UK is to take more decisions that benefit the nation, but Brexit has damaged Scotland due to the decisions made on areas like trade.

Moving onto independence - the raison d'etre for the SNP - the party's leader says his "passionately believes independence is the best opportunity" for Scotland.

But that is "not enough", he adds.

He says austerity from the Conservatives and Brexit shows being under Westminster is bad for the nation.

Mr Swinney adds that Sir Keir Starmer is "still willing to impose all that damage [of Brexit] on Scotland – whatever the cost - so he can win power".

He highlights nations like Denmark, Norway and Ireland as being independent European countries that are "fairer, with greater equality".

But despite laying out his ideological position, the SNP leader does not address how he would approach independence.

In 2022, the SNP's then-leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said the next general election would be a referendum on independence.

But this rhetoric has been wholly dropped.

The inability of Ms Sturgeon to lay out how she would achieve independence contributed to her downfall from the top of the party.

John Swinney, the leader of the SNP, is giving his party's keynote speech at their general election launch.

He is a member of Scottish parliament, and is not standing in Westminster.

Mr Swinney says it is the "loveliest of surprises" to be leading the party at this time.

He only became first minister and party leader a few weeks ago after Humza Yousaf's leadership collapsed.

The leader quips that polling day is 4 July - the US independence day - and it would be "a really good day for Scotland to follow suit".

This election represents the "biggest challenge the SNP has had for years".

Mr Swinney claims people in Scotland "want rid of this disastrous, chaotic, Tory government".

He adds that the SNP has a "clear task" to "demonstrate why achieving independence is relevant and indeed vital to their core concerns".

The SNP leader says voters in England will send the Tories "packing" and vote them out.

As part of Sir Keir Starmer's Labour campaign, he is targeting as many seats as possible in Scotland.

Mr Swinney claims Labour is doing an "impression" of the Conservatives, and attacks shadow health secretary Wes Streeting for wanting to increase private-public partnerships in the NHS.

The SNP leader says he wants Scottish voters to "unite" on 4 July to "protect Scotland's National Health Service".

We're now hearing from the SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who is participating in a campaign event in Glasgow this afternoon.

"We have much to be confident about," he says, pointing to the SNP's record on free childcare, free university tuition and bringing children out of poverty.

"That is both the past and the present, and this general election is very much about the future," Mr Flynn adds.

"What we have in Westminster is a status quo, it's a desire as Sir Keir Starmer says for stability. But I'll tell you what stability means.

"It means £18bn worth of cuts to our public services, it means no access to the European single market. It means watering down our net zero potential.

"It means denying the people of Scotland their right to democratically decide their future.

"Friends, we deserve so much more."

We've got three key dates for your diary from the Electoral Commission should you need to register to vote in the general election.

18 June: This is the deadline to register, which you can do online at gov.uk/register-to-vote.

19 June: This is the deadline to apply for a postal vote, should you not be around when polling stations open on 4 July.

26 June: This is the deadline to apply for a proxy vote, which allows someone to vote on your behalf, and also to apply for a Voter ID certificate should you not have another valid form of identification.

This is the first general election where ID is needed to vote - find out more about registration here: