A new poll for The Times puts support for separation at just 44 per cent, while backing for the Union is at 56 per cent

Support for Scottish independence has slumped below the 45 per cent achieved by Yes campaigners in the referendum and now stands at its lowest point since September 2014, according to a new poll for The Times.

The research comes at the end of the SNP’s national survey, in which Nicola Sturgeon pledged to have her party communicate with two million Scots to determine the mood of the nation and work out how to convert “no” voters to her cause.

Although the Nationalists are not publishing the results of the survey — which concludes today, on St Andrew’s Day — YouGov now puts support for separation at just 44 per cent, while backing for the Union is at 56 per cent.

It also reveals that only