Nicola Sturgeon/Wikimedia
Nine months after the dramatic Scottish independence referendum the Scottish National Party (SNP) could once again become a headache for Westminster politicians. The May 7th general election is looking to be one of the most uncertain in decades, with another hung parliament widely predicted. A poll released on Monday puts the SNP on 41%, 10 points ahead of Labour and set to win around half of the seats in Scotland, a conservative estimate compared to some forecasts giving the SNP nearly all Scottish seats. With 59 Westminster seats north of the border and a hung parliament likely, the Scottish Nationalists will be a much louder voice in London on May 8th.
What will a larger SNP contingent in the House of Commons mean after the election? The party is positioning itself to the left of Labour and they are modelling themselves as an anti-austerity force in British politics. The influence and impact the SNP will have depends entirely on the makeup of the next parliament and whether or not they would be in a Westminster government.
