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#Brexit boosts support for Scottish independence: BMG poll

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r_edited-1Support for Scottish independence rose last month after British Prime Minister Theresa May came out in favor of Britain making a clean break with the European Union, a BMG survey for Herald Scotland showed on Wednesday (8 February), writes Elisabeth O'Leary.

It indicated 49% of Scots now support independence - a 3 point rise from a previous poll - with 51% opposing it, after "don't know" votes are removed.

However, a majority - 56% to 44% - still oppose holding another independence vote before Britain leaves the EU.

In 2014, Scots voted roughly 55% to 45% to remain in the United Kingdom. But last year's Britain-wide vote to leave the EU changed the landscape.

Scotland's devolved parliament rejected May's plans for how to exit the EU in a symbolic, non-binding vote on Tuesday, a demonstration of the divisions between London and Scotland when it comes to Brexit.

A majority of Scots backed staying in the EU, and the Scottish National Party (SNP), the biggest party in Scotland's parliament, has said that there should be another independence vote if its views on Brexit are rejected.

Scottish Greens lawmaker Ross Greer, who backs the devolved nationalist government on independence, told Reuters on Monday that Scotland was almost certainly headed to a new independence referendum after the UK triggers the process to leave the European Union.

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A report by Dundee-based newspaper the Courier said that May believes Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is two weeks away from demanding a second referendum on independence.

It said May is privately working a strategy to deal with this.

Scotland has a population of around 5.3 million, according to the last census, slightly more than 8% of the United Kingdom's population as a whole.

It was an independent kingdom until merging into the UK with the Act of Union in 1707.

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