Support for Scottish independence lead opinion polls

A new opinion-poll published on Sunday has put support for Scotland’s vote to secede from the United Kingdom ahead for the first time in the independence campaign, just 11 days before the referendum on splitting from Britian

The YouGov poll released for the Sunday Times newspaper gave the “Yes” camp 51% of the votes, while 49% said “No”. Undecided voters were excluded.

The latest figures follow a YouGov poll released earlier this week that put the lead for the “no” campaign at six points, down from 14 points in the middle of August and 22 points early last month,

Although the two-point lead is within the margin of error, the findings dramatically up the stakes ahead of the vote on September 18, handing valuable momentum to the Scottish National Party's campaign – more so because of the increasing trend for the “yes” vote.

The Sunday Times also reported that the British Queen now feels "a great deal of concern" over the independence vote and has asked for daily updates.

The government of David Cameron is now expected to reveal last-minute concessions - including the devolution of more powers to Scots - in an attempt to keep the 307-year-old union alive.

The Better Together campaign, which backs Scotland staying in the UK, has been ahead in opinion polls across the board for months but its lead has narrowed in recent days.

A vote to breakaway would be followed by negotiations with London on what to do about sterling, the national debt, North Sea oil and the future of Britain's nuclear submarine base in Scotland ahead of independence pencilled in for March 24, 2016.

If Scots voted to leave the United Kingdom, Prime Minister David Cameron would face calls to resign ahead of a national election in May 2015 while Labour's chances of gaining a majority could be scuppered if it lost its Scottish lawmakers.

The poll results come after a strong performance by the Scottish National party leader, Alex Salmond, in the second televised debate against Alastair Darling, and as the yes campaign continues to hammer home the message that a yes vote is the only way to protect the NHS from Westminster's privatisation agenda.