Labour are pinning their hopes on a 190,000-strong group of Yes voters to try to stem the SNP surge in its traditional heartlands ahead of Thursday’s big vote.
The party has revealed details of a canvassing project which it claims shows nearly a third of “key Labour voters” in West Central Scotland are still undecided.
59% of 190,000 people who supported Labour in 2010 but voted Yes in the referendum are backing the party on Thursday up from 20% in January, officials say.
A further 31% are undecided and they will become the focus for Scottish Labour’s canvassing efforts in the next four days as the party battles to hold on to seats it has held for generations in places such as Glasgow and Lanarkshire.
SNP campaign sources last night poured scorn on the Labour claims as leader Nicola Sturgeon’s helicopter tour of Scotland arrives in the central belt today.
The Nationalists, who the opinion polls have consistently predicted will win the majority of Scotland’s 59 seats, revealed its activists have spoken to 1.5 million voters and will have dropped 2.4m lealfets by tomorrow.
Kezia Dugdale, Deputy Leader of Scottish Labour said: “The fate of our nation will be decided in just a few days. The people who have still to make their mind up will determine the direction of the entire UK for the next few years. If they back Labour then we will be on the road to a fairer nation for working class families. If they back the SNP then we will be on the express way to another referendum.
“So we have launched the biggest mobilisation of people and materials in the history of the Scottish Labour Party. This weekend alone we will knock on 300,000 doors, targeting those undecided voters. We will send out 1.5 million leaflets the day before the vote.”
Labour’s 190,000 targets, all of whom did not vote in the 2011 Holyrood election, have overwhelmingly not voted for the SNP in the past, according to party officials, though as many as 10% currently intend to on Thursday.
Canvassing returns show these people mainly voted for independence to get rid of the Tories and because they believed a Yes vote was the road to a fairer economy.
The concentration of these voters in West Central Scotland, where Scottish Labour currently holds the majority of its seats, makes their vote crucial when the opinion polls show the SNP so far in front of its main rival.
The SNP is now well on its way to win more than 1 million votes on Thursday but will this week focus on 360,000 target voters with a direct mail campaign.
The campaign will again have party leader Nicola Sturgeon, currently the most popular political leader in the UK according to the opinion polls, at the fore. She said: “In Scotland it means there is a fantastic opportunity to make our nation more powerful at Westminster than we have ever been before.
“Electing a strong group of SNP MPs to Westminster this Thursday will give Scotland potentially unprecedented power and influence at Westminster.
“And if Scotland including those who have still to decide how they are voting can unite around that vision, it will mean the voices of families, individuals and communities right across the country will not just be heard, but be listened to properly.”
UK-wide opinion polls have suggested that up to 40% of the electorate has still to make their minds up sparking a multi-million pound final publicity blitz from the main parties to win votes in the coming days.
The Tories will maintain their campaign based on the economy, stoking fears of what a Labour government could do to the recovery.
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