Support for Scottish independence has risen slightly as voters turn against Boris Johnson, a new poll suggests.
A survey published by Savanta ComRes found 46 per cent of Scots would vote Yes at a future IndyRef2 - a rise of two points since October - while support for the Union is also on 46 per cent, with eight per cent undecided.
Once don't knows are excluded from the total, the Yes and No campaigns are deadlocked at 50 per cent each.
The findings come as the Scottish Conservatives continue to call for Johnson to resign as Prime Minister in the wake of the Downing Street party scandal.
The survey was carried out between January 14 and 18, after allegations emerged on January 13 that a party took place at Downing Street on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.
Senior Tories north of the Border believe the UK party leader is deeply unpopular with most Scots - a position backed up by polling out today.
The Prime Minister's personal net favourability rating has dropped 16 points since October and now sits at -62 making him the least favourable politician in Scotland alongside Alex Salmond.
The favourability rating of the UK government as a whole also drops by a similar margin, now with a net rating of -50.
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, who has previously enjoyed relatively reasonable favourability ratings in Scotland, drops 10pts to -19.
But Sunak is still seen more favourably than Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross whose own rating drops two points to -21.
This is despite an overwhelming majority of Scots (79 per cent) saying that Ross made the right decision in calling for the Prime Minister to resign due to Partygate.
A similar proportion of Scots (78 per ent) agree with the Scottish Conservative leader and say the Prime Minister should step down.
The survey of 1,004 Scots asked to what extent the alleged parties in Downing Street have hurt the case for the Union, with 54% saying they have hurt it either a lot or a little.
More than a third (35%) said the claims have either not really hurt it or not hurt it at all, while 11% said they did not know.
Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta ComRes, said: "A 50/50 split on the independence voting intention does represent a bit of shift towards Yes since our last poll in October.
"But ultimately given the disaster the UK Government in Westminster is currently experiencing, one would perhaps expect support for independence to be higher.
"Indeed, many swing independence voters will likely weigh up in their minds the competence of both the Scottish and UK governments at any given moment to help decide how they’d vote at a future referendum.
"And while the UK government is in disarray, with four in five saying the PM should resign over Partygate, it’s perhaps surprising that support for Scotland to go it alone, away from the disingenuous nature of Westminster politics, isn’t higher.”
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