More Scots support Donald Trump than anywhere else in Europe

More Scots support Donald Trump in the US election than any other nation in Europe, a poll has revealed.

A quarter of Scots said they want to see the former president win Tuesday’s vote, according to a poll by Norstat for The Times.

Meanwhile, one in five SNP voters said they would back the Republican nominee in the election.

Mr Trump, who owns the Turnberry golf resort in South Ayrshire and two courses near Balmedie, north of Aberdeen, is half Scottish. The poll found 56 per cent of Scots, however, backed Democrat nominee Kamala Harris.

Women in Scotland were far less likely to back Mr Trump, with just 15 percent of females under 35 showing support for the Republican, while more than half of the men of the same age said they wanted him to become president again.

In Britain as a whole, 61 per cent of people said they wanted Ms Harris to win the US election, while just 16 per cent supported Mr Trump.

In European countries polled by You Gov, only Italy came close to having the level of support for Mr Trump seen in Scotland, with 24 per cent of people there, where the country is led by far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni, saying they supported the former president.

Meanwhile, he has support of just 17 per cent of people in Spain, 15 per cent in France, 14 per cent in Germany, 13 per cent in Sweden and seven per cent in Denmark.

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The poll found more support for Mr Trump among Conservative voters, with 50 per cent saying they would back Mr Trump, as well as 42 per cent among Brexit supporters and 70 per cent among Reform voters. However, he is also supported by 17 per cent and 20 per cent of SNP and Labour voters respectively.

Mark McGeoghegan, a polling and politics expert at the University of Glasgow, said the results should not be surprising.

“For decades, we have stuck to the myth that we are more left-wing and socially liberal than our neighbours, a story that, for the pro-independence wing of Scottish politics, feeds a sense that our different politics justifies independence. But it is just that, a story.

“The sense that Scotland is more immune to Trump’s brand of right-wing populism than other parts of the UK is rooted in the fact that Thatcherism and deindustrialisation rendered the Conservatives toxic north of the border and that the SNP chose to target Labour and Labour voters. The legacy is a party system that is more left-leaning than most, but not an electorate that is.”

Mr Trump, whose mother came from Lewis, recently appeared to express support for Scotland remaining in the United Kingdom.

Speaking to comedian Andrew Schultz, he said: “You know, they tried to break up Scotland from the rest of the empire, so to speak.

“And it made it by about like a half a point. They kept it together. So I hope it stays together. I hope it always stays together.”