A NEW poll shows that support for the SNP for May’s local elections is almost at 50 per cent.

And with Labour’s figure dropping to just 14 per cent it looks like the battle for control in North Ayrshire and across the country will be between the SNP and the Conservatives who are polling at 26 per cent.

The SNP says voters in May’s local authority elections face a choice between a progressive SNP that will protect Scottish communities or a Tory party intent on cutting public services whilst their Conservative counterparts said that they are the only clear opposition to the SNP and a second independence referendum.

Commenting, Councillor Marie Burns, SNP’s Council group leader in North Ayrshire, said: “Only the SNP can be trusted to stand up for local communities and keep the austerity-obsessed Tories out.

“This poll is encouraging, and reflects what we are finding in our own canvassing here in North Ayrshire.

“But we are taking nothing for granted in the upcoming elections. We will be fighting for every vote and encouraging every SNP supporter to get out to vote.

“With the collapse in the Labour vote and the Tories moving into second place, the choice facing North Ayrshire voters is clear: “Do you want to be represented by an SNP led council that stands up for our local community or do you want the hard-right, regressive Tory party: always intent on cutting public services.

“Only the SNP will put the people of North Ayrshire before Westminster’s politics of austerity.”

A spokesperson for the Conservatives said: “The Conservatives have doubled their share of the vote while Labour has collapsed.

Voters should be clear that the only vote to oppose the SNP and oppose a second Independence referendum is a vote for Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives on May 4.

There is a Scottish Conservative and Unionist candidate standing in each ward and they are all fighting to win. While polls are interesting, it is being on the streets meeting voters and delivering leaflets that count and we have been hard at it in some foul weather since mid-January and are very pleased with the response.”