Low-income Scots can't be relied on for Yes vote

Independence campaigners cannot rely on the votes of low income Scots to deliver a Yes vote in any future referendum, a new report shows.

Less well-off Scots are “split” on the constitutional issue, as well as Brexit, according to new research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Nicola Sturgeon unveiled plans to “restart” the Yes campaign with the SNP poised to publish its Growth Commission for an independent Scotland later this week.

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Less well-off Scots are "split" on the constitutional issue. Picture: Robert Perry

“The two referendums on Scottish independence and EU membership created new fault lines in Scotland,” according to a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report that interviewed 3,266 Scots after last year’s election.

“Low-income voters were more divided on the issues of independence (from both the UK and the EU) and roughly equal numbers of low-income voters had supported Yes-Remain and No-Remain, and somewhat more than other income groups had voted Yes-Leave.

“This indicates that people on low incomes did not have cohesive political preferences on the two major referendums that had rocked Scotland and Britain more generally. This perhaps suggests that attempts to mobilise them on these issues would only have limited success.”