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[...] The Ipsos Mori poll for broadcaster STV will add to pressure on Ms Sturgeon from within her Scottish National party to push for a second referendum before the UK’s exit from the EU.
In an interview with the BBC, the first minister said she had not decided whether to call for another vote but insisted she was not bluffing with demands for concessions for Scotland on the terms of Brexit.
Ms Sturgeon’s comments were the latest in a long series of remarks that suggest Scotland, where 62 per cent of voters opposed leaving the EU, is edging close to another plebiscite. [...]
The poll found support for leaving the UK among those sure to vote had risen two points from six months ago, to 50 per cent. Other recent polls have put support for independence at around 45 per cent, the same level recorded in the 2014 referendum.
In a particularly troubling signal for supporters of the union between England and Scotland, the poll found only 24 per cent of voters thought Theresa May, the UK prime minister, was doing a good job of representing Scottish interests in her approach to Brexit.
By contrast, 52 per cent thought Ms Sturgeon was doing a good job of representing Scotland’s Brexit interests.
Alex Salmond, Ms Sturgeon’s predecessor as Scottish National party leader and first minister, has repeatedly said that autumn next year is the most likely time for another referendum, because it would allow for a decision before Brexit takes effect.
That could smooth the process of securing EU membership for an independent Scotland. “Nicola Sturgeon, I believe, will hold an independence referendum and win it,” Mr Salmond said on his LBC phone-in programme on Wednesday.
"My suggestion has been the likely date as a year come September, but it could be three months later or whatever, within the timetable for Brexit,” he said.
However, the UK government has yet to say whether it would allow a second independence referendum, and some Conservatives have said UK prime minister Theresa May should withhold approval until the UK is outside the EU.
Asked whether she agreed autumn 2018 was a likely date for a referendum, Ms Sturgeon told the BBC she was “not ruling anything out”. “Within that window . . . when the, the sort of outline of a UK deal, becomes clear on the UK exiting the EU, I think would be the common sense time for Scotland to have that choice, if that is the road we choose to go down,” she said.
Ms Sturgeon and senior SNP figures say they are still hoping that the UK government will accept the Scottish government’s calls for special treatment in any post-Brexit deal with the EU, including membership for Scotland in the EU single market and devolved immigration powers. [...]
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