Majority think Scotland will go for independence

Most in UK expect Scots will break away within 10 years

Most people in the UK believe Scotland will be independent within a decade, according to a survey.

Nearly 55% of those polled by internet giant Google expect Brexit to lead to the break-up of the UK.

The survey revealed an even greater proportion of people in Scotland – 56% – thought that the country would be independent within 10 years.

The Google study asked 46,000 readers of the Daily Record and its sister titles in England whether they believed the “shock decision to leave the European Union will lead to the breakup of Britain”.

It also asked internet users if border controls or access to the EU single market is more important to them.

In what may make unsettling reading for Nicola Sturgeon, 52% of Scots appeared to back immigration control over the single market, membership of which requires states to allow unrestricted EU migration.

The SNP leader is demanding that Scotland retains its place in the freetrade bloc in the wake of the Brexit vote.

She has put forward compromise solutions that include Scotland staying in the single market while part of a UK that is outside and curbs migration from the EU.

Ms Sturgeon says she is prepared to call a second independence referendum if Prime Minister Theresa May does not take the Scottish Government’s suggestions seriously.

Scotland voted to Remain with a 62% majority but faces being taken out of the EU on the strength of Leave votes in England and Wales.

An SNP spokesman said that the Conservatives’ attitude to Scotland means it is “no wonder” people across the UK are “reflecting on the possibilities and opportunities of a different constitutional settlement”.

Last night Ruth Davidson said the SNP is “itching” to mimic the Leave campaign’s negative tactics in a rerun of the 2014 referendum.

The Scottish Conservative leader told a London audience that the case for the Union has to be “made afresh” as Ms Sturgeon “cranks up the grievance machine” in the wake of Brexit.

She added: “While Brexit has provided the means for Nicola Sturgeon to crank up her independence campaign once more, it has also made that case weaker and more illogical than ever.”