Alex Salmond has demanded a rerun of the Scottish independence referendum if polling hit tipping point in favour of a UK split.
The former First Minister made his comments to The House magazine as his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, told SNP delegates she will take the next steps towards a second vote within the next few days.
He claimed he called the first independence referendum when a little more than a quarter of Scots backed a Yes vote.
Average polling in 2012, when he called the plebiscite, put average support for independence at 35%, or 41% with undecided voters removed, according to the WhatScotlandThinks website.
Mr Salmond said: “There have been six opinion polls since the European vote. Three of which have shown a majority for independence and the other three have all shown an increase from 45%.
“Will Nicola Sturgeon push the button on a referendum if support for independence is, say, 50:50 or at that level? Well, I hit the button for a referendum when support was 27%. Why would she be reluctant on a much larger level than that?”
The former SNP leader, who delivered the party’s first government in 2007 and a majority in 2011, also claimed Theresa May would be forced to drop her opposition to another independence referendum if the Scottish Parliament votes for one.
Mr Salmond said: “It’s possible the Government could accept the first minister’s very reasonable demand that Scotland be kept within the single marketplace, which is her [Sturgeon’s] red line.
“But, my guess is that they won’t do it, because there’s nothing about the prime minister’s disposition in her weeks in office that suggests she is at all flexible, sensitive, or responsive to Scotland’s legitimate claims … and therefore there will be a referendum.
“David Cameron claimed that there wouldn’t be a referendum, he said he wouldn’t allow a referendum, and then faced with a parliamentary vote in Scotland for a referendum he acquiesced, as this prime minister will do.”
