Battle for hearts and minds on future of the nation

In the wake of Nicola Sturgeon’s fresh independence drive yesterday, more than 120,000 SNP members have been sent survey packs and asked to contact 15 people under plans to gauge voting intentions on the constitutional question ahead of a St Andrew’s Day deadline.

READ MORE: Labour leadership hopeful Owen Smith pours cold water on second independence ballot​

It aims to win over ‘soft No’ voters: those who rejected independence in 2014 but might be prepared to change their minds in a re-run of the ballot.

But within hours of the announcement, the Scottish Conservatives launched a new petition opposing any plans for a second referendum.

The Scottish Conservatives said Nicola Sturgeon promised this April that she would not revisit the referendum question unless opinion had changed.

In a letter to supporters, Ms Davidson wrote: “As leader of the main opposition party, I will demand every day that we get the government focused back on what matters.

“And you can join me today by signing our petition, saying no to a second referendum. Already, thousands of Scots have signed up. Join them - and me - in making sure the SNP listens for once.

“Together, let’s demand the government we deserve: one that focusses on the day job, not a divisive, unwanted second referendum.”

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Billed as a “national conversation” on independence, the SNP’s voter survey urges participants to provide their full name, postcode and email address while inviting respondents to rate how British or Scottish they feel.

It also asks how contributors voted in the Scottish and EU referenda while asking them to rank their strength of feeling towards removing nuclear weapons from Scotland, retaining EU membership and immigration.

It further asks whether a voter would back Scottish independence if a ballot was held tomorrow.

It is thought the answers will help the Yes movement identify swithering No voters and fight for their votes during a renewed independence offensive.

READ MORE: No hard border after independence says Sturgeon as she asks for views of 2 million Scots

But the contacts details will also ensure the same people do not fill in the survey, which can also be downloaded from a dedicated website, multiple times.

Of the online survey, Professor John Curtice, a polling expert and political scientist at Strathclyde University said it was standard practice for researchers to ensure identifiable information was kept separately from people’s preferences.

““There is no way I would fill this in,” he said.

Prof Curtice added: “As a piece of research it has potential in a limited way and as a marketing exercise it also has potential within certain constraints.

He questioned whether the requirement for identifying information might put off those people who voted No in 2014 and effectively result in confirmed nationalists talking into to an echo chamber.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon promises biggest ever listening exercise as she launches new independence push

Prof Curtice said that while asking for names, postcodes and email addresses would reduce the number of fraudulent replies “the last thing the SNP needs is people filling this in 10 or even 100 times”.

“What you want to know as political party is what your opponents think,” he said. “There is no point in having this filled in by almost two million Yes supporters”.

“I think most people would say that good practice is that you have to opt in to communication – not opt out. “And there is not even an opt out box on the survey, you have to write to the party.”

The lack of an ‘opt out’ box on the survey to prevent data from respondents being shared prompted the Scottish Conservatives to complain to the Electoral Commission.

Thousands of SNP activists will hit the doorsteps up and down Scotland over the next three months in a bid to take the political pulse of the electorate and try to persuade swithering voters of the case to secede from the UK.

At the launch of ‘The National Survey’ in Stirling, Nicola Sturgeon insisted that project would not simply be a ‘re-run’ of the 2014 referendum. The arguments for and against separating from the rest of the UK had been changed utterly by the vote to leave the European Union, she said.

But she added that while the Brexit vote had also thrown up new questions about Scotland’s current relationship with the rest of the UK there would be no ‘hard border’ with England citing Brexit Minister David Davis’ pronouncement that Northern Ireland should not have a physical barrier with the Republic once Britain leaves the EU.

In the lead up to the 2014 referendum. the SNP argued that a Yes vote would see Scotland enter the UK’s Common Travel Area with Ireland.

READ MORE: Labour leadership hopeful Owen Smith pours cold water on second independence ballot​

But critics have questioned whether that arrangement could survive Brexit.

Ms Sturgeon said: “The UK government cannot get away with saying that in Ireland and then saying the opposite here - it simply will not work”.

Earlier a poll showed a small increase in support for Scottish independence.

YouGov found that while 46 per cent of respondents would vote for Scottish independence in a second referendum, 54 per cent would want to remain in the UK, a fall of just one per cent since 2014.

Meanwhile, Labour leadership contender Owen Smith also said that Scotland should not embark on the road to another independence referendum, just days after announcing he would not oppose a second ballot.