Polls apart: Clacton landslide and a Scottish cliffhanger

Scotland vote heads for gripping finale, says our poll-watcher, while Ukip lead is a horror for PM

Don Brind

Two new polls – one suggesting a cliffhanger in the Scottish independence referendum, the other appearing to confirm a Ukip landslide in the Clacton by-election – point to a dramatic transformation of the political scene over the next five weeks.

YouGov’s Scottish poll fully justifies The Times headline: ‘Scotland puts Union on a knife edge’. It shows that the No campaign’s lead, which was a comfortable 22 per cent in early August, has now fallen to just six per cent. After excluding don’t knows, Yes scores 47 per cent to the No campaign’s 53 per cent.

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is a former BBC lobby correspondent and Labour press officer who is watching the polls for The Week in the run-up to the 2015 election.