LABOUR has admitted it is "relaxed" about attempts by the Yes campaign to woo its supporters to the independence cause.
The party believes that a poll released last week, on the eve of the Yes launch in Edinburgh, which showed a two-to-one vote against Scotland going it alone, reveals the scale of the task facing those who want Scotland to become independent.
It highlights the high number of SNP voters who said that they would vote no to independence.
Yesterday it was revealed that Jeanne Freeman, a one-time adviser to former Labour First Minister Jack McConnell had become one of the first names to sign the Yes declaration after it was launched last week.
Advocates of independence say that more and more one-time Labour backers will come out to support their cause.
Although Labour said that Ms Freeman had resigned from the party in 1996, a key plank of the Yes campaign will be to target so-called soft Labour voters.
The pitch is that Labour voters will be able to achieve more of their key policy aims through independence than by remaining part of the UK, no matter who is in power.
A source close to the Yes camp said: "It does not matter who is in Government, Labour or the Conservatives, there are a lot of Labour supporters out there increasingly frustrated that the things that they believe in would not happen no matter who was in charge in Westminster."
Ms Freeman said that she supported independence so "in our own country that can make better decisions on issues of social justice, poverty, and welfare" and "to access the levers of the economy for enterprise, particularly for young women".
The Yes camp points to last week's polls, which showed 14% of Labour supporters said that they favoured the break-up of the UK. But Labour said that the same YouGov poll also revealed that 25% of SNP voters would reject independence.
"We are relaxed about these claims," a Labour party source said. "They would be better off worrying about their own voters than worrying about ours."
The Yes campaign says it hopes to talk to most voters in a constituency in the run up to the vote, expected in 2014. It estimates that the turnout will be high by the standards of most votes, at around 80%.
The pro-independence camp is keen to win over those who have an open mind on independence but have yet to be convinced. They have been dubbed "the persuadables" and will be the subject of intense targeting in the next two-and-a-half years.
Last night Labour called for clarity after Alex Salmond was quoted as saying that if the so-called Devo Max option was included on the ballot paper then it could be trumped by independence even if more of the public voted for extra powers.
"If there is a majority in favour of independence – as long as the question is asked in a clear way – then Scotland becomes an independent country," the First Minister said.
However, a source close to Mr Salmond sought to play down calls for a single question, saying that the interview had been given in January and since then a number of other ways had been suggested.
But Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont said: "What we want is one, simple, clear question we can all agree on whether we want Scotland to leave the UK or not. Anything else will look like an attempt to rig the referendum and will sap people's confidence."
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