The Union is on a knife edge, with support for an independent Scotland rising to 50% and a clear majority preferring Scottish independence in the EU to remaining in the UK after Brexit, according to a poll.

The finding, as Nicola Sturgeon prepares to rally the SNP at its autumn conference in Aberdeen today, represents the highest level of support for independence ever recorded in a Panelbase survey for The Sunday Times.

It represents a five-point rise on the 45% support the company registered on average in its polls last year and in the independence referendum in 2014, up from 49% in our last poll in June.

In another breakthrough for the independence movement, the poll of 1,003 voters in Scotland finds that more (45%