A NEW poll has put support for independence at 44% but shows the SNP losing ground to Labour at the next General Election.

The Panelbase poll for The Sunday Times was conducted after former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest last Sunday.

It put support for independence at 44% (don’t knows included), with those backing the Union at 50%.

But while the poll shows that support for independence remains steady, the report predicts that the SNP could suffer their worst result in 13 years at the next General Election.

It projected that the party would win 21 seats, down from the 48 it won in the 2019 elections.

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour – who currently have just one MP at Westminster – would win 26 seats, defeating the SNP for the first time since 2010.

Strathclyde University professor Sir John Curtice said that Sturgeon’s arrest “has undermined the confidence of Yes supporters in her and her party in a way the arrest two months ago of her husband, Peter Murrell, did not”.

He added that the “swing from the SNP to Labour since late March has occurred almost entirely among Yes supporters".

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The poll also found that Humza Yousaf’s favourability rating increased by 4 points to minus 12 over the same period.

However, former leadership candidate Kate Forbes was the only Scottish politician to have a positive rating, of plus 3.

Douglas Ross remains the most unpopular leader of a political party in Scotland with a score of minus 34.

Panelbase interviewed 1007 people aged 16 and over in Scotland between June 12 and 15.