MOST Scots are now in favour of independence, according to a new poll.

The study by Lord Ashcroft Polls, published in the Holyrood Magazine, was conducted days after new Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Scotland and shows the majority want a second referendum by 2021.

It puts support for independence at 46 per cent for and 43 per cent against.

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When those who did not know how they would vote, or said they would not vote, are removed, support for independence rises to 52% for, 48% against.

And one in five Better Together voters in the 2014 referendum said they would switch to vote for independence.

Lord Ashcroft said it was the first lead for independence in a published poll since an Ipsos MORI survey in March 2017, and the biggest lead since a spate of polls in June 2016, shortly after the UK voted to leave the EU.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, in relaying the "phenomenal" findings on social media said that "attempts by the Tories to block Scotland’s right to choose our own future are undemocratic and unsustainable".

When asked what the outcome would be if there was a new referendum on Scottish independence, 52% if Scots thought it would lead to a break from the Union.  That dropped to around one in three of those who voted Better Together in the 2014 independence referendum.

Ms Sturgeon added: “This is a phenomenal poll for the independence movement — showing that more and more people think it’s time that Scotland took our own decisions and shaped our own future as a fair, prosperous, outward-looking nation.

“Independence means getting governments people in Scotland vote for and that will act in our interests. That stands in stark contrast to recent experience of UK governments incapable or unwilling to act with those interests in mind.

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“Meanwhile, the case for independence grows stronger by the day. “A broken Westminster system means Scotland is being dragged towards a No Deal Brexit, regardless of the heavy price we’ll pay for lost jobs and lower living standards. That project is being led by Boris Johnson — a Prime Minister Scotland didn’t elect and who has no mandate to tear Scotland out of Europe with all the damage that will entail.

“The Scottish Government, by contrast, has a very clear mandate from the people of Scotland — to give them the choice of a better future with independence. “It would be a democratic outrage for any Tory government to deny that, and this poll shows such an anti-democratic position is completely unsustainable.”

The online poll questioned 1,019 adults in Scotland between July 30 and August 2.

The poll found that 47% agreed there should be another referendum on Scottish independence within the next two years.

Nearly two in three thought Brexit would make it more likely that Scotland will become independent in the foreseeable future with 43% believing it was much more likely.

More than half of No voters in the 2014 referendum thought this is the case, with 32% of them saying it makes independence much more likely.

And 57% would rather see a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn than a Conservative administration run by Boris Johnson.

Responding to the poll, Scottish Greens Co- Leader Patrick Harvie MSP added: "It's time that the people of Scotland were given a choice over their future.

"We didn't vote for Brexit, we didn't vote for a Tory government and I'm certain that given the choice we wouldn't have voted for Boris Johnson either, yet we are being dragged along with the ever-increasing Brexit catastrophe, so its no wonder that a majority of Scots now recognise the need for us to make an exit from Boris Johnson's Brexit Britain.

"We already have a mandate to hold an independence referendum, yet the Tory Government has threatened to block a request. This would be an affront to democracy and is wholly untenable in the face of public support for a vote.

"It's time for Scotland to retake our place as an independent European nation."