SUPPORT for Scotland becoming an independent country has grown to 47%, according to the latest poll.

It puts backing among voters for the Yes cause two percentage points higher than since the September 2014 referendum – despite there being no official campaign on the matter.

The First Minister has said she will decide in the autumn whether to push ahead with plans to hold a second plebiscite on Scottish independence once the terms of Brexit are clear.

Asked whether Nicola Sturgeon should call a new vote this autumn, 23% thought she should, 19% were in favour of another vote but do not think she should call one in the autumn, while 9% were unsure. A further 49% said she should not call a second referendum at all.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay, who is also the SNP’s business convener, welcomed the results.

“Support for independence remains at historically high levels, with a Yes majority within the margin of error and well within touching distance.

“And we’re not – yet – in the heat of an independence campaign,” he said.

“But as Westminster moves from chaos to utter shambles, proving beyond doubt it is incapable of protecting our interests, the case for independence becomes ever stronger.

“Little wonder that since last year there has been a marked rise in the number of people who back giving the people of Scotland that choice over their future. With the full powers of independence, we could make better choices in Scotland’s interests and avoid the damage of a Tory Brexit.”

Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Greens’ co-convener, said: “Westminster is in chaos and it’s disgraceful that more than two years on from the EU referendum we still have no idea what Brexit will look like.

“All we can be sure of is that our economy and environmental protections will suffer significantly after leaving the European Union.

“It’s remarkable that support for independence remains so high given the Yes movement hasn’t done a single bit of formal campaigning.

“The status quo will no longer exist in March 2019 and I suspect that voters in Scotland will come to demand a say on whether we should be dragged along with this Brexit mess.”

The poll was carried out by the research company Survation for the Daily Record.

The paper was seen by some on the Yes side as helping to swing a No vote in 2014 after it published the Vow – promising a strengthened devolution settlement and more powers for Holyrood. But last month the paper’s former editor Murray Foote announced he would vote Yes if a new independence referendum was held.

He later told The National he did not regret publishing the Vow and in time it would be seen as a stepping stone to independence.

However, former First Minister Alex Salmond disagreed, saying the Vow presented “a No campaign then in total disarray with a rallying point” in the final week of the campaign.

The First Minister initially said the issue of Scottish independence was “back on the table” the day after the June 2016 Brexit referendum, when 62% of Scots voted to remain in the EU while the UK as a whole voted by 52% to leave.

But she postponed plans for a new referendum on the question after the SNP lost 21 seats at last year’s general election.

Survation interviewed 1002 Scots online between July 5 and 10 following the Cabinet resignations over May’s Brexit proposals. The pro-Union parties demanded the First Minister does not move forward with a new independence vote.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: “The people of Scotland want the government focused on jobs, schools and hospitals, not another referendum campaign that creates false divisions between working class people when the real divide is between the richest and the rest of us.”

A spokesman from the Scottish Conservatives added: “This poll again shows the majority of people do not want a second referendum – and they overwhelmingly don’t want one any time soon.”