More than half of people across the UK think Scotland should be allowed a second independence referendum within five years if the Scottish National party wins a majority in elections on May 6, a survey by polling company Ipsos Mori has found.
The survey of more than 8,500 people is likely to increase pressure on UK prime minister Boris Johnson to rethink his refusal to allow any rerun of the 2014 referendum in which Scots rejected independence by 55-45 per cent.
The May 6 Scottish parliamentary elections could prove a crucial moment for the UK’s constitutional future, with the SNP on Thursday unveiling plans for a referendum it hopes to hold by the end of 2023. Less than a quarter of the people Ipsos Mori surveyed across the UK said they thought the UK would still exist in its current form in a decade’s time.