LEVELS of support for independence vs the Union have barely changed in the last year, a new survey has found.
The Survation poll for Ballot Box Scotland, which shows changes between the end of March 2022 and early May 2021, finds support for Yes has fallen one point to 42% while the proportion of people saying they’re undecided has increased by one point to 11%.
There has been no change recorded to support for No, with 47% of the 1002 respondents saying they’d vote to stay in the Union.
READ MORE: Scottish voters ditching Tories after lockdown breaches, new poll finds
With the undecided voters excluded, it means some 53% say they’d vote No at indyref2 (+1 on last year but -2 on 2014) and 47% say they’d vote Yes (-1 on 2021 but +2 on 2014).
Nicola Sturgeon intends for the Scottish Government to hold a new referendum on independence by 2023. Her manifesto, and the Greens’ with whom the SNP share a co-operation agreement, pledged to holding indyref2 in this parliamentary term.
However Kevin Pringle, who was a special adviser to former first minister Alex Salmond and held key roles within the SNP and the Yes Scotland campaign, said it is “unlikely” there will be a fresh vote on the issue by the end of next year “given the hurdles to be overcome”.
SNP Westminster chief Ian Blackford, though, has been insistent that the conflict in Ukraine should not delay plans for indyref2.
The same poll for Ballot Box Scotland also finds that the Tories could be pushed back into third place in Scottish politics in the wake of the partygate scandal.
Support for the party has fallen significantly, new research suggests, and is “yet to fully recover” after it was revealed the Prime Minister and his inner circle had repeatedly broken lockdown rules in Downing Street.
The poll suggests the Tories could expect to take just 19% of the regional list vote and 20% of the constituency vote in a Holyrood election.
This was below the prediction for Scottish Labour, who were estimated to take 23% of the list vote and 25% of the constituency vote.
Support for the SNP has fallen slightly, the research found, with the party tipped to lose two seats in a Holyrood vote. The Greens were predicted to gain two.
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