Polls find Scots still back staying in the UK

Scots continue to favor remaining in the UK, according to a survey, and just 40% of them support Nicola Sturgeon’s proposal to conduct another vote next year.

Research by Savanta ComRes revealed that, excluding doesn’t know, 51% of respondents want to stay in the union after the SNP leader sought a fresh vote within 16 months.

Ministers have referred to the referendum concept as a “dream” and 53% of people reject it, while only 25% support it.

Ms. Sturgeon is requesting guidance from the UK Supreme Court on whether she may proceed despite Boris Johnson’s refusal to provide approval.

But she has conceded that if judges go against her – as most experts expect – she will not trigger a ‘wildcat’ vote.

Instead she will merely fight the next Westminster election on the single issue of Scotland’s place in the UK.

The latest in a long line of polls for the Scotsman that have seen unionists just barely ahead in the debate

Leaving those those who were unsure, 49% favored the separatist position and 51% opposed it.

The last referendum, which both sides referred to as taking place “once in a lifetime,” saw a 55-45 victory for remaining in the UK.

Yesterday, Ms. Sturgeon faced criticism for pushing for independence while seeing the Queen in Edinburgh.

Both ladies grinned as Ms. Sturgeon gave the 96-year-old queen the $175 bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, despite the disagreements about the Union’s future.

Her Majesty was also given a new tartan blanket, which she said was ‘a lovely thing to have’.

Ms Sturgeon praised the Queen during the Platinum Jubilee as a ‘quite extraordinary individual’, and has suggested an independent Scotland would want to keep the constitutional monarchy.

Savanta’s Chris Hopkins said the results on the question of whether Scotland should be an independent country are ‘practically neck and neck’.

He said: ‘Support for a second independence referendum without a Section 30 is driven by those in the Yes camp; opposition comes almost wholly from the No camp.

‘Four in five Yes voters say the case for independence is stronger now than in 2014, a majority of No voters say it’s weaker now.

‘The battle lines that were drawn in 2014 are all too familiar, and Nicola Sturgeon’s defiance to hold a referendum at almost any cost just deepens this divide.’

: Savanta ComRes interviewed 1,029 Scottish adults aged 16 or over online between June 23 and 28.