YESTERDAY’S poll on Scottish independence made for grim reading for Richard Leonard.

A third (34%) of Labour voters told the pollster they will now back for independence, and a majority (53%) of the party’s supporters say Brexit strengthens the case for Scotland to become independent. Just 9% of Labour backers said Brexit strengthened the case for the Union.

When asked to choose between the UK and the EU, Labour’s voters were split on the issue.

Asked – if it were not possible to do both – if it would be more important for Scotland to remain part of the UK, or to remain in the EU, 46% would choose the UK, while 40% would choose the EU.

And Scottish voters as a whole still thought Boris Johnson was a better leader than Jeremy Corbyn, and Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard.

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Asked which of the two most likely candidates would make the better prime minister, 29% of Scots named Johnson, and just 23% said Corbyn.

Nearly half said they didn’t know. Fewer than four in 10 Labour voters said they thought Corbyn would make the best prime minister.

If forced to choose, Scots voters said they would prefer a Labour government with Corbyn as prime minister to a Johnson-led Conservative government by 57% to 43%.

Incredibly, a quarter of Labour voters said they would prefer the Eton educated toff to remain in charge, rather than hand over the keys to Number 10 to the veteran left-winger.

What will almost certainly terrify the party is the flakiness of their vote.

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While SNP and Tory voters said they were very likely to make the same choice at the next election, Labour voters put their chance of voting the same way at just 56%.

The SNP, the LibDems and the Greens all held some appeal for the wavering Labour voters.

Responding to the Lord Ashcroft poll, Leonard commented: “Labour is not a party that stands for the status quo in the UK: economically, politically or constitutionally.”

He added:“But the real change we need to see in society is also a shift away from austerity to one of investing in our people, our communities and our public services.”