'Yes' camp takes lead in latest Scotland poll

Supporters of Scottish independence from Britain have taken their first opinion poll lead since the referendum campaign began, indicating a real possibility that they might win, according to a YouGov survey for the Sunday Times newspaper.

With less than two weeks to go before the Sept 18 vote, the poll gave the "Yes" camp 51 percent support compared to the "No" camp's 49 percent, overturning a 22-point lead for the unionist campaign in just a month, the Sunday Times said.

YouGov said that the results excluded those who would not vote and those who did not plan to vote or did not know how they would vote. With those groups included, secessionists would be on 47 percent and those championing the United Kingdom would be on 45 percent, it added.

It said that the poll, conducted after pro-independence leader Alex Salmond was widely judged to have won the second of two televised debates, amounts to a statistical dead heat at the moment. "The last poll ... was the first to represent a real possibility for a "Yes" win ..." it said.

A separate poll by Panelbase, commissioned by the pro-independence campaign, showed support for a breakaway rising but still short of a majority at 48 percent. When undecided people were included, that fell to 44 percent.

Alistair Darling, leader of the Better Together campaign, said the latest poll showed the referendum "will go down to the wire".

"We relish this battle," he added. "It is not the Battle of Britain - it is the battle for Scotland, for Scotland's children and grandchildren and the generations to come. This is a battle we will win."

The "Yes" campaign's chief executive, Blair Jenkins, urged his side to remain focused.

He added of the YouGov survey: "While this poll puts us marginally ahead, other polls show that we still have more progress to make if we are to win.

"We will be working flat out between now and 18 September to ensure that we achieve a 'Yes' vote."

After months of surveys showing nationalists heading for defeat, recent polls have been showing the gap narrowing to the extent that they raise the real prospect that secessionists led by Salmond's Scottish National Party could achieve their goal of breaking the 307-year-old union with England.

A previous YouGov poll on Sept 1 put the lead for the "No" to secession campaign at just 6 points, down from 14 points in the middle of August and 22 points at the start of that month.

But the latest average of the polls, issued on Sept 1 by Strathclyde University Professor of Politics John Curtice, still placed the unionist lead at 10 points.

Reuters - AFP