Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy eager to prove polls wrong

Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has said opinion polls "are there to be confounded" as the latest put his party well behind the SNP in the election contest in Scotland.

As campaigning entered its second week, a YouGov poll for The Scottish Sun (£) suggested 46% of voters north of the border will back Nicola Sturgeon's party, compared with 29% who are planning to vote Labour on May 7.

But Murphy told party activists as his launched Scottish Labour's election campaign, ''The polls are there to be confounded.''

ITV News Correspondent Martin Geissler reports:

Murphy made the comments in Neilston, East Renfrewshire, part of the constituency he won at Westminster "against the odds" in 1997.

"'Because we had the ideas, the energy, the teamwork, we won that election back then and we've won ever since," he said.

Murphy unveiled a new pledge card, setting out Labour's key priorities if it wins the General Election.

But he stressed the only way commitments such as ending zero-hours contracts, increasing the minimum wage and introducing a mansion tax to help fund the NHS would be implemented is if his party emerges victorious.

''In Scotland we can't beat the Tories alone, but the rest of the UK can't do it without us," Murphy said.

"We have to vote for the only party that is big enough, the only party that is strong enough, to defeat the Tories and end their crushing austerity.''