The campaign for Scottish independence has received a much-needed boost in the polls following Alistair Darling’s poor performance in the final televised debate of the campaign.
The leader of the pro-UK ‘Better Together’ campaign floundered in Monday’s debate against Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, with a snap poll saying he had lost by 29 percent to 71.
Now, according to a Survation poll for the Scottish Daily Mail, the anti-independence side’s lead has narrowed significantly to just six points, down from 14.
As postal voting begins for the referendum, the number of undecided voters is dropping, with just one in ten Scottish voters now undecided. When “Don’t knows” are factored in, the ‘No’ side leads on 47.6 percent, the ‘Yes’ side has 41.6 percent, with 10.8 percent undecided.
Previously, the figures were 50.3 percent ‘No’, 37.2 percent ‘Yes’ and 12.5 percent ‘Don’t Know’.
The figures will be welcomed by the pro-independence campaign, who badly needed a poll boost if they were to rescue their campaign and stand any chance of winning the referendum.
Although the poll results will come as a blow to the ‘No’ campaign, they can take comfort from the fact they are still in the lead, and that lead is the same as it was before a massive poll bounce following the first televised debate. They also maintain a substantial lead among female voters.