Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy will take cold comfort from his two per cent gain in the latest opinion poll.

With less than three months till polling day, Labour is undoubtedly gaining some ground north of the border.  But, nothing short of a Sinatra-like comeback will help Mr Murphy’s cause.

Even the staunchly-Labour supporting Daily Record had to admit that their Survation poll showed Scottish Labour has made “little progress” to win back support from the SNP in spite of last week’s poll showing it had got within 10 points.

The Record’s poll predicts the SNP returning 47 seats to Labour’s 10 and a warning that a vote for the nationalists will let David Cameron in the back door of No 10.

Mr Murphy is toiling to find a game changing idea to get on the front foot in the General Election campaign.

And on the evidence of this new poll he is singularly failing to convince “Yes” voters to move away from the SNP.

Nor does it look like he can rely on a monumental gaffe or policy stumble by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who is exercising the same iron grip of discipline on her party that characterised Alex Salmond’s two terms in Bute House.

So with three months to go it is looking increasingly unlikely that Mr Murphy will be able to hold on to the lion’s share of his current 41 seats.

Which is nothing but good news for the Conservatives nationally.

Latest poll: Survation/Daily Record. SNP 45%. Labour 28%. Cons. 15%. Lib Dem 5%. Others 7%.

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Lindsay McGarvie is a Director at 3×1 Public Relations with over two decades experience in journalism/communications (former Scottish Political Reporter of the Year). He is a PR and public affairs consultant with unrivalled UK media contacts and extensive crisis/reputation management experience and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.