SCOTLAND would vote yes to independence if the referendum was held tomorrow, according to a new poll.

The survey by TNS found that 47 per cent of Scots would vote yes, 42 per cent would vote no and 11 per cent are undecided. If the undecideds are removed, 53 per cent of Scots would back independence.

TNS’s poll comes a week after Ipsos-Mori found similar levels of support for independence.

The 1,023 people who took part in the poll between August 23 and September 1 still overwhelmingly back the SNP in the Holyrood elections next year.

Although the party were down four points from last month, the SNP are still well in front of their rivals on a staggering 58 per cent.

There was a boost for Kezia Dugdale and Scottish Labour who have put on three points since the last poll. However, at 23 per cent they are still polling lower than they did in May’s General Election.

Conservative support remained unchanged at 12 per cent and the Liberal Democrats were on five per cent, up two points. The Greens were down two points at six per cent.

Tom Costley, head of TNS Scotland, said: “SNP support remains at a very high level. Labour, which will be encouraged by making a modest dent in the SNP lead, is likely to have been helped in the past month by the election of Kezia Dugdale as leader in Scotland and perhaps by the news focus on its UK leadership election.

“But it should be noted that the 23 per cent poll support is still below the 24.3 per cent it received in its General Election defeat by the SNP.”

TNS pointed out that independence was still more popular with younger voters. Some 68 per cent of 16-34s supported a Yes vote, with 32 per cent for No. The 35-54 age range had Yes at 57 per cent, but 65 per cent of over-55s would vote No.

Tom Costley said: “The apparent change of mood towards independence gives the SNP a difficult decision on whether to include a commitment to a referendum in its manifesto for next year’s elections. On the one hand, some will argue that ‘just one more heave’ will get the Yes vote over the line and will be disappointed if there is no commitment to try again. Others will argue that a six-point lead can be overturned in a long campaign and that a second lost referendum would make it hard to make another attempt for the foreseeable future.”

SNP business convener Derek Mackay said: “This is yet another sensational poll showing support for the SNP up significantly on even our 2011 landslide result as people in Scotland put their trust in the party to build on our strong record of delivery in government.

“It is welcome to see support for independence is continuing to grow as people see the SNP in government and at Westminster stand up for Scotland while the Tories press on relentlessly with cuts that hit the poorest hardest while proposing to spend billions on a new generation of nuclear weapons on the Clyde.

“We warned the Tories that support for independence would only grow if they continued to ignore Scotland’s voice and failed to deliver the powers they promised – and this is just the latest poll which proves that, as people question Westminster’s ability to represent Scotland’s interests at all.”

Poll expert James Kelly from the Scot Goes Pop blog told The National that he was keen to see what the next poll said: “Neither TNS nor Ipsos-Mori had published a post-referendum poll on independence until this month, so it’s impossible to say for sure when the increase in support for Yes occurred. If it happened very recently, we should expect to see a further Yes surge in the next poll.”