Poll reveals EU is a bigger issue for Scots than independence
A NEW opinion poll has revealed that most voters would rather have a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU than another on Scottish independence.
The survey, for BBC Scotland by pollsters Ipsos Mori, blows away the idea that voters north of the Border are desperate for another ballot to break up the Union.
In the survey, the issue was ranked a lowly 19th out of 23 in voters’ list of priorities.
However, preventing immigrants from the EU claiming UK welfare benefits until they have been in the country for at least four years proved popular. And Scots also appeared to favour imposing a cap on the number of people coming to live in the UK from abroad, which scored 6.33 – again seen as more important than another independence referendum.
It comes after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon refused to rule out staging a second vote to break away from the UK after the 2016 Holyrood elections.
In last September’s referendum there was an overwhelming No vote against independence.
More than 1,000 adults were questioned for the research, with pollsters asking them to give various issues a score of between one and 10, depending on how important these were to them.
A score of one meant a policy should not be implemented while 10 was taken to mean it should be put into action immediately.
The most popular policy was increasing the minimum wage for those aged over 21, which was given a score of 8.2.
Giving the Scottish Parliament power over all welfare benefits was eighth most popular, while transferring full responsibility for income tax to Holyrood came 10th. However, holding another independence referendum by 2020 was given a score of only 5.6 – significantly lower than the 6.1 scored for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union or not.
The SNP, Labour and the Lib Dems are opposed to an EU referendum with only the Conservatives planning to hold one in 2017.
Taking the railways back into public ownership, a favourite policy of the Left, attracted a score of 6.46, while capping the amount of welfare a single household can claim got 6.3 backing.
