THE majority of Scots do not think Holyrood should require anyone’s permission to hold a second independence referendum, a new poll has found.
By 51% to 40%, voters north of the Border think the Scottish Parliament should be able to hold indyref2 whether Westminster agrees or not.
The results come despite a split in the poll showing that No would win such a referendum by 54% to 46%, with don’t knows removed.
The YouGov survey, conducted from February 17-20, also shed light on perceptions of Nicola Sturgeon’s time in office.
It found that 50% of people thought Sturgeon had been a good leader for Scotland, while 32% said she had been bad. A total of 13% said it had been neither.
The poll also found that 37% of people say Scotland is a worse place to live than it was in 2014, compared to 27% who say it is better. Of course, Brexit, the pandemic, and a wealth of other political changes have happened in the meantime.
The poll found that 41% of Scots said that her handling of the pandemic was the outgoing SNP leader’s biggest achievement in office. This was streets ahead of the baby box, which came second on 9%, and furthering the cause of independence, which was third on 6%.
Scots also cited Kate Forbes as their favourite to replace Sturgeon at the head of the SNP, although the fieldwork was done before the seismic changes in her campaign over the last 24 hours.
On 10%, Forbes was also far behind both the “don’t know” option (54%) and the “none of these option” (19%), as were her fellow contenders Humza Yousaf (5%) and Ash Regan (2%).
The poll also returned estimates of both Westminster and Holyrood voting intentions.
For Westminster, it found that while the SNP remain the largest party, there has been a four-point dip in their support.
The SNP polled at 38%, compared to the Tories on 19% and Labour on 29%.
Latest Scottish Westminster voting intention (17-20 February) SNP: 38% (-4 since 23-26 Jan*) Labour: 29% (=) Conservative: 19% (+4) Lib Dem: 6% (=) Green: 4% (+1) Reform UK: 2% (-1) Other: 2% (=) *see chart/article noteshttps://t.co/IV6CTPMHfw pic.twitter.com/2EdKmIzVSO
— YouGov (@YouGov) February 21, 2023
For Holyrood, the SNP polled at 42% on the constituency vote, compared to the Tories’ 18%, Labour’s 28%, and the LibDems’ 8%.
For Holyrood’s list vote, the SNP polled at 35%, compared to the Tories’ 18%, Labour’s 27%, the Green’s 9%, and the LibDems’ 7%. Alba and Reform UK both polled at 2% in this category.
YouGov polled 1017 Scottish people aged 16 or over.
