Just a fifth of Scots back Nicola Sturgeon’s plan for a second independence referendum within two years, a poll showed last night.
Research by Survation showed 21 per cent of voters want IndyRef2 by 2021 – although a majority do want a repeat of the 2014 ballot eventually.
The poll – commissioned by the pro-UK Scotland in Union campaign – lays bare the mountain the First Minister still has to climb to convince Scots to back a split from the UK.
It was published a day after Sturgeon said she wants to hold the referendum by 2021 if Scotland is taken out of the EU.
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Other findings which will worry Sturgeon as she prepares to get the SNP conference under way in Edinburgh tomorrow include:
● More voters think leaving the UK would be more economically damaging for Scotland than Brexit
● Most people in Scotland want the Scottish Government to focus on health, education and the economy – not the constitution.
The poll also suggested less than four in 10 Scots now back independence, although the question was not phrased by the pollsters in the traditional way.
It asked people how they would vote in a second independence referendum with the question: “Should Scotland remain in the United Kingdom or leave the United Kingdom?” rather than a yes/no question on independence.
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Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said described the poll as a “bombshell”.
She added: “The people of Scotland want Nicola Sturgeon to get back to her day job and focus on fixing our hospitals, schools and the economy, and to drop her obsession with breaking up the UK.”
But Deputy First Minister John Swinney insisted Sturgeon was facing up to the prospect of how damaging Brexit could be to Scotland.
He said: “There are a number of critical issues that will affect our economic performance that, if handled in the fashion that we fear they will be handled, will be very economically damaging to the country.
“And what the First Minister was doing was essentially encouraging people to think about, well do we do something about it or do we not?”
