An exclusive new opinion poll by The Sunday Post found that more than a third of voters believe Alex Salmond should quit if he fails to win a Yes vote in September’s referendum.
The poll also found that more than a quarter of Scots think David Cameron should quit as Prime Minister if Scotland backs independence.
The survey of 1,000 people living north of the Border, carried out last week, asked that in the event of a No vote and Scotland remaining part of the UK, should Alex Salmond resign as First Minister?
A total of 35% said he should go, 40% said he should stay, 14% said it would depend on the size of the margin of defeat and 11% didn’t know.
One in seven SNP voters said Salmond should quit but the bulk of the support for him going, not unsurprisingly, came from Labour and Tory supporters.
More importantly for the Nationalist leader, two thirds of voters who backed the SNP at the last Holyrood elections said he should not resign, which aligns with the 63% of Yes voters who also said he should not go.
The second question asked that in the event of a Yes vote and Scotland beginning the negotiating process to become an independent country, should David Cameron resign as Prime Minister of the UK?
A total of 26% said he should go, 39% said he should stay, 15% said it would depend on the size of the margin of defeat and 20% didn’t know.
Support for Cameron from voters who backed the Tories in the 2011 Holyrood elections was pretty empathetic, 81% saying he should not go.
In total, 57% of No voters feel the Prime Minister should not resign if he doesn’t win the referendum.
The bulk of support for the Tory leader quitting came from SNP and Labour supporters.
Strathclyde University polling expert Professor John Curtice said “If we strip away the fact that No voters will automatically say Salmond has to go, you actually find that Yes and SNP supporters do not think his job is on the line so it appears it would be a case of thanks for trying, we forgive you and carry on.
“That does not account of course for some sort of internal SNP implosion in the event of a No vote and on the other side, the bigger problem for David Cameron if there’s a Yes vote actually comes from the rest of the UK.”
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