BBC Cymru Wales poll: Few in Wales back Scottish independence

Fewer than one in five Welsh voters say they would like to see an independent Scotland, a BBC Cymru Wales poll reveals.

The survey found only 5% of people want to see an independent Wales, but that figure rose to 7% in the event of an independent Scotland.

The number of voters who want to see the Welsh assembly abolished has risen 10 percentage points in four years.

But more than a third said they would like to see it gain more powers.

BBC Cymru Wales' annual St David's Day poll, carried out by pollsters ICM, found the most popular constitutional preference was for more powers for the Welsh assembly, with 37% support.

But 23% said they wanted to see it abolished, a figure 10 percentage points higher than that recorded in 2010.

Prof Roger Scully, of the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, said voters seem split on what they want from the assembly.

"We may just be seeing at the moment a little bit of a polarisation in attitudes. We also see a lot of people, even more, wanting the assembly to have more powers," he said.

"We see at the same time a slight increase in the number of people wanting the get rid of the assembly."

But overall he said people in Wales were largely supportive of devolution but there remains a limited appetite towards becoming independent from the rest of the UK.

Polling day

The survey suggests Labour are on course to make gains at the 2015 general election in Wales.

The poll shows the party has support of 42% - six percentage points higher than their support in the 2010 General Election.

Conservative support is at 24% - down two percentage points on 2010.

Plaid Cymru are on 14%, up three percentage points on 2010 while the Liberal Democrats are on 9%, down 11 percentage points on their 2010 showing in Wales.

UKIP were backed by 7%, five percentage points up on the 2010 results, the survey showed.

A BBC analysis of the results suggests that, if those results were repeated on polling day, Labour would win the Cardiff Central seat from the Liberal Democrats and the Cardiff North ward from the Conservatives.

The poll also suggests Welsh voters would like to see the UK remain as part of the European Union, with 54% wanting to stay and 40% wanting to pull out.

But 60% of respondents thought immigration to the UK was too high, with only 31% saying the level was "about right".

ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,000 adults by telephone on 21-24 February 2014.