ONLY around a third of people in the UK think the Union will still exist in 10 years, new polling has found.
The poll from Ipsos, published on Monday, revealed that while a majority of the public expect the Union still to exist in its current form in the short and medium term, there is growing public scepticism over its long-term viability.
It comes after the leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland met on Monday to sign a historic agreement on self-determination.
Scottish First Minister John Swinney, Welsh first minister Rhun ap Iorwerth and Northern Ireland first minister Michelle O'Neill held a landmark press conference in Cardiff on Monday morning to sign a memorandum of understanding as they declared “Westminster’s time is coming to an end”.
According to the Ipsos poll, more than half (55%) of people believe the United Kingdom will exist in its current form in five years' time, up from 42% in October 2019.
However, just 35% of people believe the Union will still exist in 10 years' time, while 34% said it would not.
And only 24% of people said they believed the current constitutional set-up will be in place in 20 years' time, down from 34% when first measured in June.
Previous polling by Ipsos, which was released in June, found that a total of 43% of Scottish adults said they would be happy about the Scottish Government working closely with the Welsh Government, compared to 17% who said they would be unhappy.
Meanwhile, 38% said they would be happy about the Scottish Government working closely with the Northern Ireland Executive.
However, Ipsos found that Scots are more divided about the Scottish Government's relationship with the UK Labour Government, with 34% saying they would be unhappy with close working between the two governments, and 30% of Scots happy.
Commenting, Emily Gray, managing director of Ipsos Scotland said: “We’ve been tracking the public’s expectations for the UK’s future since 2014 and as the leaders of Plaid Cymru, Sinn Féin and the SNP meet today to discuss just that, we reveal shifts in the British public’s view of the future of the Union.
"The immediate future of the United Kingdom is taken as a given by most Britons, but public certainty evaporates the further we ask them to look into the future.
“The fall in those expecting change over a five-to ten-year horizon suggests that the public by and large do not expect the break-up of the Union in the medium term."
Gray added: "The longer-term picture looks more concerning for Andy Burnham and the UK Government, however, with more of the public expecting the UK not to exist in its current form in 20 years’ time than expect it still to exist.
“Only time will tell whether, in hindsight, the declaration in Cardiff Bay will come to be seen as an event that hastened the break-up of the Union or not.”
The Ipsos poll surveyed 1137 UK adults between May 14 and 20.
