A poll among 120 advisers attending the Personal Finance Society’s Scottish regional conference in Perth last week found that 79 per cent were against independence, with just 11 per cent in favour and the remaining 10 per cent undecided.
The result of the vote was announced this morning, in the wake of a fresh poll from YouGov which suggests a late surge for the ‘yes’ campaign and was the first to put the ‘yes’ vote in a shock lead, two weeks before the referendum.
One of the advisers who took part in last week’s PFS adviser survey said the vote next Thursday will be a much closer affair.
Dennis Osman, an associate at Glasgow-based Hicks and McNish and PFS educational officer for central Scotland, said: “I was not surprised by the outcome from a financial services perspective, but there will be a lot more emotion involved on the day.
“As far as we are concerned, there is a general consensus that going independent will only result in added costs for us all,” he continued.
“We would have to duplicate the FCA, PRA and FSCS, yet like most IFAs in Scotland I have many clients south of the border, which could make things rather complicated.”
Mr Osman added that there is strength in togetherness and the positives of saying ‘no’ far outweigh the negatives.
Last night, Scottish political heavyweight and former prime minister Gordon Brown announced a plan for fresh powers to be devolved to Holyrood, in what commentators described as a move similar to that which swung the Quebec independence vote for the Canadian government in 1995.
The plans are set to be adopted by all of the main parties today, but have been derided as “nothing new” by Alec Salmond, who said the pro-union campaign was in “chaos”.
