NEARLY three-quarters of people in Scotland want to keep using the pound, a new poll has found.
It came as the SNP’s leadership urged members to back their vision for independence ahead of the party’s conference in Edinburgh this weekend – including plans to eventually move to a new currency – amid an ongoing row over the proposals.
New polling shows 72 per cent of Scots want to keep using the pound and only 12% want to use a new Scottish currency. The question respondents were asked made no reference to independence.
However, 39% said the idea of Scotland having its own currency made them less likely to support independence, with only 11% more likely to vote to leave the UK. A total of 44% said they were neither more nor less likely.
Read more: Iain Macwhirter: There’s no need for the SNP to take a pounding over currency issue
The survey of more than 1,000 people was carried out by Survation on behalf of anti-independence campaigners Scotland in Union.
It came after polling for the group found only one in five Scots want a second independence referendum within the next two years – the timetable set out by Nicola Sturgeon in Holyrood earlier this week.
Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said the latest survey revealed “the SNP is not listening to the views of the people of Scotland”.
She added: “The overwhelming majority of people in Scotland want to keep the pound and don’t want a new currency.
“By remaining in the UK we can keep our pound, protect mortgages, pensions and salaries, grow our economy without extra red tape for businesses, and use a stable currency backed by the strength of the UK’s central bank and 30 million taxpayers.
“The SNP should drop its unwanted plan for a divisive second independence referendum and its hated plan to scrap the pound, and get on with the day job of running our hospitals, schools and trains.”
SNP delegates will be asked to back the party’s Growth Commission – its economic blueprint for independence – at its conference today.
The vision states Scotland should continue using the pound in the first decade after a Yes vote and focus on deficit reduction and curbing public spending.
Read more: Nicola Sturgeon facing 'splits over currency' at SNP conference
However, it also recommends a “careful, managed and responsible transition” to a new currency once six key tests are met.
SNP depute leader Keith Brown and Finance Secretary Derek Mackay have urged members to back the plans, insisting they are “strong, credible and ambitious”.
But some high-profile figures in the party – such as Inverclyde MP Ronnie Cowan and former MP George Kerevan – want to drop the six tests and for a new currency to be adopted in the first term of an independent parliament.
Robin McAlpine, director of the left-wing think-tank Common Weal, has also urged delegates to reject the Growth Commission, insisting it would “freeze Scotland at Tory spending levels for a decade”.
He warned the plans risked tearing the independence movement apart and branded them “incompetent, right-wing idiocy”.
Responding to the Survation poll, Mr Brown called it “another boomerang attack from Scotland in Union who appear determined to generate more good news for independence campaigners ahead of the SNP’s spring conference this weekend”.
He said: “This poll shows that a majority of voters agree with our position that an independent Scotland would keep the pound after a Yes vote.
“This proposal is popular with the public and will allow an independent Scottish Parliament to make future decisions on currency.
“It’s clear that Scotland in Union are rattled by the momentum that continues to build behind the case for Scottish independence.”
Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said: “The Yes campaign messed up the approach on currency last time around, and it cost them dearly.
“And this study shows the SNP is still no closer to sorting the issue out.
“Of course, there is one easy answer to all of this; keep Scotland in the union and continue using a world-famous and stable currency.”
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