Support for the SNP at Holyrood and Westminster has dropped, a new YouGov poll has suggested.
The Sunday Times survey showed support for the party dropped from 50% to 44% in the Holyrood constituency vote and from 40% to 36% in the regional list.
This was compared to the results of the same poll in December.
Support for independence also dropped substantially, from 53% to 47% among decided voters.
SNP support at Westminster dropped marginally from 43% to 42%.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she plans to run the next UK election as a “de-facto referendum” in the hopes of achieving a majority of votes and securing negotiations on independence.
But the First Minister’s approval rating has also suffered in recent months, dropping from a net of 7% in October to -4%.
The fieldwork for the poll was being done at the same time as a row over the imprisonment of double rapist Isla Bryson was raging in Scotland.
Bryson, who committed two rapes while she was a man, was initially housed in segregation at Cornton Vale near Stirling – Scotland’s only all-female prison – before being moved to the male estate after public and political outcry.
The saga led to Scottish Justice Secretary Keith Brown pausing the movement of transgender prisoners into women’s jails if they have a history of violence.
Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, told the Sunday Times: “While the decline in support for independence is likely to be part of the explanation, it looks as though the battering the Scottish Government has suffered, especially on the issue of transgender prisoners, may also have taken its toll on SNP support.”
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