On the first anniversary of the release of the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, an Ipsos MORI poll for Scottish Television has revealed public opinion becoming more critical of the decision.

Over half of Scots (54%) now think that the Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, was wrong to release Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi and allow him to return to Libya on compassionate grounds, compared to 46% who disagreed with the decision when it was made last year.

Support for the decision has fallen from 42% of Scots in 2009 to 36% today. The proportion of Scots who ‘strongly support’ the decision has held firm (22% in 2009 and 20% today), rather it those who gave the decision lukewarm support in 2009 who are now more likely to disagree with the decision.

As in 2009, SNP supporters are more likely than supporters of other parties to back the release; 50% of SNP supporters back the decision (down 8% from 2009), compared to just 33% of Lib Dem supporters (down 8%), 29% of Labour supporters (down 3%) and 25% of Conservative supporters (down 9%).

• Download the topline (PDF)
• Download the full computer tables (PDF)
• Download the presentation briefing slides (PDF)

Technical Note

• Results are based on a survey of 1,013 respondents conducted by telephone between 16th August and 19th August 2010.
• Data are weighted by age, sex and working status using census data, and tenure using SHS 2007-2008 data. 
• An asterisk (*) indicates a percentage of less than 0.5% but greater than 0. 
• Where results do not sum to 100, this may be due to multiple responses or computer rounding. 
• Where the base size is less than 30 the number (N) rather than the percentage of respondents is given.