Lassies could scotch bid for independence

The fate of the UK rests in the hands of women voters, according to an exclusive poll for The Daily Telegraph which shows that the Scottish independence referendum is on a knife edge.

With one final day of campaigning left before voting begins, the poll of 1150 Scots showed 52% planned to say no to independence today, and the remainder yes.

The lead for the pro-Union No campaign narrowed from six points to four since Opinium's previous survey was published on Sunday.

Overall, some 8% of voters remained undecided.

But among women, an increasing number were coming down in favour of voting no.

Some 58% of women said they would vote no while 53% of men backed independence.

The findings came as Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister and leader of the Yes campaign, and Alistair Darling, the leader of the pro-Union Better Together campaign, embarked on a last frantic effort to win over undecided voters.

Turnout is widely predicted to break records, with 4.3million voters registered to take part.

Mistrust of Westminster politicians seems to be a significant factor in the support for independence. Half of all voters and 85% of Yes supporters do not believe the promise of more devolution from David Cameron.

If Scotland does vote in favour of independence, respondents believe the main driving force will have been "dislike" of Westminster politicians, a factor named by 38%. The next most popular reason for supporting independence was "a sense of Scottish national pride", named as the most influential factor by 18% of voters.

Some senior Conservatives at Westminster are said to be dismayed that a complacent Downing Street operation has failed to engage with the threat to the UK from Scottish independence until it is too late.