Scottish independence: Yes camp hails 'momentum'

Supporters of Scottish independence claim they have the "big momentum" with less than two weeks to go before the referendum vote.

It comes as a Sunday Times poll suggests the Yes camp has taken the lead for the first time.

Some 51% of those who have made up their mind and intend to vote back an independent Scotland while 49% plan to vote no, the YouGov poll suggests. The Better Together campaign's Alistair Darling called it a "wake-up call".

The poll of 1,084 people, carried out between 2 and 5 September, is the first and only serious study to put the Yes campaign ahead, and suggests the pro-Union camp has lost its lead - once regularly in the double-digits.

On 18 September voters will be asked the Yes/No question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

The headline poll results exclude undecided voters or those who plan not to vote.

When they are included, 47% backed Yes while 45% said they would opt to stay in the UK.

"This breakthrough poll shows that Yes has the big momentum," Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said, claiming that support for independence was growing particularly among Labour voters and women.

"Scotland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world," the SNP deputy leader added.

"More and more people are beginning to realise that a Yes vote is Scotland's one opportunity to make that enormous wealth work better for everybody who lives here, create more jobs, and protect vital services such as the NHS from the damaging effects of Westminster privatisation."

'Speak out'

However, a separate poll for the Yes Scotland campaign put the pro-Union Better Together camp ahead by 52% to 48% - when undecided voters were excluded.

Pollsters Panelbase questioned voters between 2 and 6 September.

As both sides step-up their campaigns with just 11 days to go till the referendum, a Downing Street source said David Cameron would "strain every sinew" to make the case for the union.

The prime minister believes there is "only one poll that matters", the source said.

But Mr Darling said: "These polls can and must now serve as a wake-up call to anyone who thought the referendum result was a foregone conclusion - it never was.

"It will go down to the wire. Now is the time to speak up and speak out."

'No guards plan'

Meanwhile, former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown appeared to blame the Conservative Party for the closeness of the battle.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Mr Brown suggested the Better Together camp was finding it "difficult" to win over Scots because of anger over coalition policies - including changes to housing benefit and tax cuts for the wealthy. But a senior source at the cross-party Better Together campaign denied there were any rifts and said they would not be changing strategy for the final days of campaigning.

Elsewhere, Labour leader Ed Miliband suggested in an interview with the Scottish Mail on Sunday that manned border guards could be introduced if Scotland voted to go independent.

He told the paper: "If you don't want borders, vote to stay in the United Kingdom."

A spokesman for Mr Miliband added: "The last time I looked there were two sides to the border - and we would be in charge of one of them. It would be up to us, not [First Minister Alex] Salmond, to secure our northern border."

The party later said on Twitter that there was "no Labour 'plan' for border guards in [an] independent Scotland".

'Hypocrisy'

The two sides will intensify their efforts this week, with senior Labour Party figures including John Prescott and Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones due to appear for Better Together.

For the pro-independence camp, a Yes Scotland television advert focusing on the NHS will be broadcast on Monday, and on Tuesday Mr Salmond will answer questions from undecided voters on Facebook.

The Yes campaign also plans to send out 675,000 letters from engineering tycoon Jim McColl, who recently stepped in to save Ferguson Shipbuilders on the Clyde, urging undecided voters to support independence. Mr Darling described the planned letter as "rank hypocrisy", arguing that Mr McColl was not based in Scotland.

He also criticised the nationalists over a Commons vote on controversial welfare reforms on Friday, from which four out of six SNP MPs were absent.

Better Together will also step up its leafleting and young voters will receive personally addressed letters. Labour MP Douglas Alexander said: "In the course of the coming days we will be joined by amongst others John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, and Carwyn Jones, the first minister of Wales.

"All young voters across Scotland will get a personally addressed letter this week from Better Together.