TONY BLAIR will hit the election campaign trail in Scotland today, buoyed up by a new opinion poll which suggests that Labour is comfortably ahead of the Nationalists in the race to be the largest party in the Scottish Parliament.

The poll, which gives Labour a 12-point lead over the Scottish National Party on the first constituency vote, also appears to suggest that Jack McConnell is getting his own tartan version of the “Baghdad Bounce" with voters accepting that the UK Labour Government has been vindicated over its stance on war with Iraq.

However, both Mr Blair and Mr McConnell, Scotland’s First Minister, will be alarmed that the poll also provides some evidence that Labour voters are more likely to stay at home on May 1 than SNP voters.

Mr McConnell is, though, the poll concludes, easily winning the battle with John Swinney, the SNP leader, in terms of “trustworthiness”.

The poll, conducted by Populus for The Times, is based on a survey of 500 voters in Scotland. It found support for Labour on the first vote running at 41 per cent and 34 per cent on the second regional list vote.

This compares with 29 per cent for the SNP on the first vote and 31 per cent on the second vote.

The big losers are the Liberal Democrats, Labour’s partners in the coalition in the first Scottish Parliament, who have slid to only 11 per cent on the first vote and 10 per cent on the second vote.

That would give the Lib Dems only 12 seats compared with the 17 they have at the moment and one fewer in the new Parliament than the Scottish Tories who are on 10 per cent for the first vote and 12 per cent on the second vote.

The Scottish Socialists have also seen their support drop compared to a previous Populus poll in February. Tommy Sheridan’s party is on 5 per cent for the first vote and 7 per cent for the second. However, this would still see five more SSP MSPs joining Mr Sheridan at Holyrood.

In the campaign yesterday both Labour and the Scottish Nationalists intensified their attacks on each other.

Jack McConnell used a speech to trade unionists in Inverness to accuse the Nationalists of being willing to sacrifice investment in public services for the sake of gaining independence.

His speech was also an attempt to win the backing of trade unions.

The SNP hit back at Labour with Mr Swinney highlighting Scottish Executive figures which showed that sick children are waiting longer for treatment.

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