People in Scotland are more likely to vote for independence if they think the Conservatives will win the next UK general election, a poll suggests.
But the prospect of a Labour government would see a surge in support for the union, with more voters rejecting independence, the ICM poll found.
ICM recorded the highest overall support for independence since last August at 48% excluding "don't knows", results reported in the Scotland on Sunday revealed.
If the Tories look like winning the 2015 general election the Yes campaign could be on the cusp of victory at 49% excluding undecided voters, according to further ICM results published today by sister paper The Scotsman.
The party, which has one MP in Scotland, could also lose its only Scottish MEP to Eurosceptic party Ukip at the European elections next month, the poll suggests.
Overall, ICM found 39% in support of independence with 42% against and 19% undecided.
The prospect of a Tory government would see a two per cent swing from undecided to boost Yes to 41% while the No vote remains unchanged.
The prospect of a Labour government would see support for independence fall to 36%, support for the union surge to 44% and leave 20% undecided.
Support for Ukip is on the rise and they are on the verge of becoming Scotland's third most popular party in the European Parliament, according to ICM voting intentions.
The SNP remains the most popular party at 37%, although support is down 4% on last month, with Labour holding fairly steady in second place at 28%.
Tory support has dropped two points to 11% while support for Ukip is up four points to 10%.
Lib Dem support was two points up at 7% while the Greens remained unchanged at 4%.
ICM interviewed an online sample of 1,004 Scottish adults aged 16+ on 14-16 April 2014.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article