Poll: Further devolution is 'almost nobody’s preferred outcome' for Scotland

The Scottish public is not in favour of devolving further powers from Westminster to Holyrood, with a larger proportion of voters in favour of abolishing the Scottish Parliament than widening its scope.

According to a Survation poll carried out for The Herald and Ballot Box Scotland, 11 per cent of voters are in favour of further devolution compared with 17 per cent who are content with the current set-up and 16 per cent who would like to see the parliament disbanded.

A further 37 per cent said that independence would be their preference, six per cent said they would not vote if there was a multi-choice referendum on Scotland’s constitutional status and 13 per cent said they did not know.

When given a binary choice between further devolution and the status quo 40 per cent favour the former and 35 per cent the latter, while in a binary choice between further devolution and independence 45 per cent favour the former and 36 per cent the latter.

Allan Faulds, who runs Ballot Box Scotland, said the results put further devolution “in the curious position of being almost nobody’s preferred outcome, but a tolerable middle ground for most”.

He added that the poll also suggests that Labour, which looks likely to win the upcoming general election and has said it is “committed to reforming how government operates in Scotland" – including strengthening the role of the UK Government’s Scotland Office – faces a “constitutional conundrum” north of the border.

“Prospective Labour governments at both UK and Scottish level have their work cut out for them to try and resolve this constitutional conundrum,” he said.

“Push forward with more powers for the Scottish Parliament, and risk antagonising the majority of pro-union voters who don’t want that. Fail to do so, and risk antagonising the many pro-independence voters the party has won back.

“Kick off the kind of substantive, meaningful discussion necessary to build support, and good luck preventing that from growing arms and legs to become just another independence versus union flashpoint.

“The constitution may not have defined this general election campaign, but it still has the potential to define Labour’s time in office.”

It is almost a decade since Holyrood received further powers via the 2016 Scotland Act, which was passed following a review led by Lord Smith of Kelvin in the wake of the 2014 independence referendum.

That gave the Scottish Parliament the ability to, among other things, amend the Scottish electoral system and the capacity to be more creative with income taxes.

Speaking to Holyrood earlier this year University of Glasgow professor of public policy Nicola McEwen said that while the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey shows the majority of the public are supportive of having a devolved parliament in Scotland the fact the Scotland Act led to a “more complicated devolution settlement” has impacted on the appetite for further devolution.

“Devolution means different things to different people,” she McEwen. “For some it was to cement Scotland’s place in the UK, for others it was a way  to build confidence in self-government and build more and more power until we get to independence.

“But in 2016 two things happened – we got a more complicated devolution settlement and there was Brexit – and there’s been an erosion in the trust of devolved institutions since, including among people who would have used it as a stepping stone to independence. That’s a challenge.”