Less than 40 per cent of Scots back Nicola Sturgeon’s fallback plan to turn the next general election into a de facto referendum on independence, according to a new poll.
The First Minister has said that the SNP would treat the outcome of the next Westminster election as an independence referendum in all but name if powers to stage a second vote next year are not granted.
Sturgeon’s Scottish Government wants to hold an indyref2 in 2023 but the UK government has refused permission and the legal arguments are being tested in the UK Supreme Court next month. Just 39 per cent of Scots agree that if a majority of voters supported pro-independence parties at the next general election, despite there being no referendum, this would establish a democratic mandate for independence.
According to an Ipsos Scotland poll testing voters’ attitudes to a referendum, almost the same proportion, 38 per cent of Scots said it would not, while 24 per cent were unsure or had no strong views.
The option of staging a referendum without Westminster agreement, as some independence supporters are pushing for, does not have majority backing either.
If a so-called wildcat referendum were held, without the agreement of the UK government, produced a majority Yes vote then 47 per cent of Scots said this would establish a democratic mandate for independence.
According to the poll 35 per cent felt it would not, and 18 per cent were unsure or had no strong views.
The new polling shows a clear majority of the Scottish public accept that a referendum held with the agreement of the Scottish and UK Governments could provide a democratic mandate for independence.
Some 63 per cent of Scots said that a Yes vote in a referendum that both the Scottish and UK Governments agreed to hold would establish a proven democratic mandate for Scottish independence.
Just 18 per cent said they felt this would not establish a democratic mandate.
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