ALMOST two-thirds of Leave voters would sacrifice the Union for Brexit, according to a new poll.

Polling by Lord Ashcroft asked Leave voters from the across the UK a hypothetical question: would they rather the UK leave the European Union, or keep England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales together in the UK, if both were not possible?

More than six in 10 (63%) said they would rather Brexit take place than maintain the Union.

Among Tory Leave voters, the total choosing to leave the EU even if it meant breaking up the UK rose to almost three-quarters – 73% compared to the 22% for holding the UK together.

The gap was closer for Labour voters, with the equivalent figures being 50% and 34%, but a comfortable majority was still maintained.

Around half of those aged 18 to 49 also chose Brexit as their preference, and that increased to seven in 10 for those aged 50 or over.

The polling of more than 6000 voters across the UK and Ireland highlights the scale of how little the Union is worth to Leave voters in comparison to Brexit.

Those results somewhat strengthen previous findings from Panelbase, which suggested that English voters would rather lose Scotland than Gibraltar in the Brexit process.

Revealed last month, it asked whether voters would consider losing Scotland, Gibraltar or Northern Ireland an acceptable price for Brexit.

Losing Gibraltar was too high a cost for 37% of voters, but only 35% felt the same way about Scotland, and 31% for Northern Ireland.

The research by Lord Ashcroft also found that a majority of voters in Northern Ireland believe that Brexit has made unification with the Republic more likely in the foreseeable future.

However, enthusiasm for a swift move to a unified Ireland was limited in the Republic, with 56% saying they favour the idea in principle but fear it would not be practical or affordable in the next few years.

Some 35% said they would like unification to happen within a few years and just 9% opposed it outright.

More than seven out of 10 of those questioned in the Republic said they were unhappy the UK was leaving the EU and three-quarters said Britain had made the wrong decision for its own interests.

More than half said Brexit would make the relationship between Ireland and Northern Ireland more distant and two-thirds said the same was true of the Republic’s relations with the UK.

In Northern Ireland, nearly two-thirds said a hard border was likely to create division and provoke paramilitary action.

The poll also found that confidence in the UK negotiating team has fallen.

When people were asked to rate how confident they were on a 100-point scale that a good deal will be secured, the mean score was 40 – down from 42 in November. A total of 8% of Leave voters in Britain also said they had changed their minds and would prefer to stay in the EU.