Support for staying in the Union soars to 57pc

SUPPORT for Scotland remaining in the uK has soared to 57 per cent – as the SNP revealed an independence referendum could be held by the end of this year.

A poll has shown support for separation is plummeting, with only 43 per cent saying they would vote for independence.

The Survation survey of 1,011 people, for pro-union group Scotland in union, asked if respondents would like to ‘leave or remain in the uK’, similar to the question asked in the Eu referendum of 2016.

Most recent polls have mirrored the question from the 2014 referendum, which asked if voters believed Scotland should be independent.

When undecided voters are removed, support for remaining within the uK was 57 per cent, compared to 43 per cent for leaving.

The result was hailed by pro-union campaigners, but Nationalists reacted angrily, with Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf claiming that the new poll had been ‘rigged’.

Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in union, said: ‘This poll shows that a majority of people in Scotland want to remain part of the uK. This confirms the recent trend in polls, with the successful uK vaccination programme and uK-wide support for jobs and businesses reminding us that we are stronger together.

‘The SNP should stop prioritising division ahead of the issues that really matter to people.’

But yesterday Mr Yousaf tweeted: ‘They will throw more conspiracies and rigged polls at us between now and polling day.’

The poll was released as the SNP group at Westminster led an opposition debate on Scottish independence.

Nationalist MP Tommy Sheppard, the party’s constitutional affairs spokesman, claimed that ‘no one is suggesting that we have a referendum campaign during the pandemic’.

But he added: ‘If it’s possible to have it later this year because the pandemic is over and we’ve moved beyond it, then I would welcome that.

‘I don’t speculate on whether it’s the end of this year or the beginning of next year.’

Scotland Minister Iain Stewart said the SNP’s mission is ‘to smash apart one country, our country’.

Mr Stewart told the Commons: ‘The challenges we will have to rebuild our economy and society, and children’s education and the mental health of the nation, will run on for many years – and the fact that people in Scotland want their government to be focusing on that, I think they will take very badly this obsession with having a referendum within the next 12 months.’