The campaign for independence has been boosted by another poll suggesting more Scots are considering voting Yes at a future IndyRef2.
It's the latest headache for Unionists as consecutive surveys carried out in 2020 has shown support for the UK lagging behind.
With don’t knows excluded, the poll for Savanta ComRes / The Scotsman found 58 per cent of voters intend to vote Yes with 42 per cent voting No. This drops to 52 per cent and 38 per cent when don’t knows are included.
The pollsters interviewed 1,013 Scottish adults aged 16 or over online between December 11 and 15.
The survey also found that 40 per cent of voters believe a second independence referendum should happen within the next two years.
Six years was the choice of 15% of respondents who expressed an answer, while six per cent said an IndyRef2 should not take place for at least a decade.
Independence support has fluctuated in recent polls, but has consistently remained above 50% - once don't knows are excluded from the total - in more than a dozen polls.
A survey published last week by Survation had support for Yes at 52%, in comparison.
But the figures will still be alarming for the Scottish Conservatives as they gear up for another parliamentary election which will be centred around the constitution.
Nicola Sturgeon will lead the SNP into next year's Holyrood vote on a platform that Scotland must be allowed another vote on independence.
The First Minister argues that Brexit has fundamentally changed the UK and Scots should be given a say on whether they want to remain a part of it.
But Boris Johnson has signalled time and again that his government will refuse to allow an IndyRef2 and insists the result of the 2014 vote must be respected.
SNP depute leader Keith Brown said: “This poll – the seventeenth in a row with a clear majority for Yes – shows that independence is becoming the settled will of the majority of people in Scotland.
“Faced with an arrogant, out-of-touch Tory government at Westminster, which side-lines Scotland at every opportunity, and is dragging Scotland out of the EU against our will, it's no surprise that people want a better future.
“The people of Scotland simply will not stand for the Tories threatening our NHS and taking a wrecking ball to our Scottish Parliament with their Power Grab Bill.
“Boris Johnson’s Trump-like bid to deny democracy will not stand.
“It is the people who live here who have the right to decide Scotland’s future - not Brexit-obsessed governments we don’t vote for led by the likes of Boris Johnson.
“The referendum that can deliver independence is only possible if people use both votes to back the SNP in May.”
