‘Don’t knows’ and Reform biggest winners as Scottish Christians turn away from SNP, Labour

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Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Getty/iStock)
A recent report suggests that many Christians in Scotland are “politically homeless” as they turn away in droves from the parties which have dominated politics for many years.
While it was for a time a long-running joke that there have been more pandas in Scotland than Tory MPs, the identical fate may now be in store for representatives of Labour and the SNP, the latter having dominated Scottish politics for nearly 20 years.
The report, “Faith and Public Life in Scotland: A National Assessment of Christian Political Identity and Public Engagement”, found that support amongst churchgoers for the SNP had fallen from 22 per cent in 2024 to only 13 per cent today.
Support for the Conservatives dropped by nine per cent, while Labour support declined by 6 per cent.
The report claims that Christians are generally quite engaged with society but are “politically unsettled” and increasingly uncertain about who they need to forged a vote for.
The fundamental beneficiary of the changes seems to have been Reform, which has gone from only one per cent support amongst churchgoers to 14 per cent. Catholic and people attending Free church denominations were more prone to support Reform.
However, the biggest change has been Christians who “don’t know” who they’ll support in the following election, rising from 16 per cent in 2024, to 42 per cent.
The polling found that the overwhelming majority of Christians (72.4 per cent) consider the present Scottish government doesn’t support Christian principles, while even higher numbers (81.3 per cent) agreed that Christian politicians often received criticism for his or her faith.
A comparatively recent example could be Kate Forbes, who was heavily scrutinised for her Christian faith when she ran for the leadership of the SNP in 2023. At the time many commentators claimed her rival, Humza Yousaf, faced far less scrutiny for his Islamic beliefs.
The research was conducted by think tank Logos Scotland, whose chief executive, Shona Haslam, said, “There is a political vacuum with regards to a values based, socially left, economically right party where constitutional issues should not the first concern. When you’ve gotten parties polling this closely with such a big don’t know element then the final result of the election looks more up within the air than some polls might suggest.
“The Christian vote shifting to this extent, particularly in some distant rural constituencies could have a huge impact.  It will rely upon where the electorate lands and whether or not they end up to vote. What this poll shows is the political space that exists amongst this sizeable demographic that might make a giant difference in certain parts of Scotland.”
Haslam added that Reform claiming to face for Christian values could have helped their polling amongst churchgoers and will encourage other parties to do the identical.

Source: https://www.christiantoday.com/news/don-t-knows-and-reform-biggest-winners-as-scottish-christians-turn-away-from-snp-labour