A poll today revealed that Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander is set to lose his Commons seat to the SNP at the general election.
The Cabinet minister would be the biggest casualty as the survey showed a tidal wave of SNP support breaching Lib-Dem and Labour strongholds north of the border.
The data from Tory peer Lord Ashcroft also suggested that Labour election chief and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander is on course to be dumped.
It showed that of 14 Labour-held seats surveyed, 13 could be won by the SNP — dealing a body-blow to Ed Miliband’s chances of winning the keys to Downing Street.
In all of the 16 seats that were tested the preferred outcome for voters was a coalition between Labour and the Scottish nationalists, whose support has surged since last year’s independence referendum.
Lord Ashcroft said: “Most of my constituency research is focused on marginal seats. But in post-referendum Scotland, the concept of a marginal seat is rather obsolete.
“Huge swings to the SNP in national polls suggest that even some MPs who must have thought they had a job for life are threatened.”
Danny Alexander has played a key role in the Coalition as a member of the powerful “quad” alongside Nick Clegg, David Cameron and George Osborne.
He is also said to have his eye on the Lib-Dem leadership. But the Ashcroft data showed he would lose his Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey seat by 29 percentage points if an election were held today. The poll also showed that former SNP leader Alex Salmond is on course for a return to Westminster with a win in the Lib-Dem stronghold of Gordon.
In the Labour-held constituencies surveyed the overall swing to the SNP was 25.4 per cent.
Only 60 per cent of those who voted Labour in 2010 said they would do so again, with some 35 per cent now backing the SNP.
The data suggests Douglas Alexander would lose his Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat with a swing to the SNP of 25 points.
Of the tested seats only Glasgow North East would stay in Labour hands, but with the party’s majority nose-diving from 54 points to seven.
The East Renfrewshire constituency of Labour’s Scottish leader Jim Murphy was not tested.
A Labour source said: “The only people that will benefit from these polls are David Cameron and the Tories.
“It’s a simple fact that the single biggest party will form the next government. The more seats the SNP gets from Labour the more likely it is that the Tories will be the biggest party and David Cameron will get into Downing Street through the back door.”
