Global Security Newswire

More Scottish voters support keeping British nuclear weapons than expelling them from a potential independent Scotland, according to new research.

Forty-one percent of polled Scottish voters wanted to allow the nuclear arms to remain in Scotland, compared to 37 percent who wanted them expelled in the event of a "pro-independence" vote in September, the Scotsman reported on Tuesday.

The most recent British social opinions survey by NatCen concluded that "people in Scotland were not necessarily convinced that becoming independent should require the removal of British nuclear weapons."

That finding could pose a significant wrinkle to the locally governing Scottish National Party's plan to have all British nuclear warheads, ballistic missiles and strategic submarines withdrawn from Scotland by 2020 following a potential vote in favor of secession. Recent polling shows that the pro-independence camp is narrowly trailing the "pro-union" camp.

However, thousands of Scottish voters hold well-paying jobs related to the maintenance and upkeep of the United Kingdom's strategic submarine fleet and Trident missile arsenal, which are based at the Faslane naval base and the Coulport armaments depot, respectively. Those jobs could end and not be replaced if the nuclear weapons are ordered out of Scotland.

Another issue possibly weighing on the minds of Scottish voters is that NATO officials have reportedly told Scottish officials that an independent Scotland would not be allowed to join the alliance if it has any unresolved issues with another member state, in this case the United Kingdom. London has said it is not making any plans to relocate its nuclear arsenal.

The NatCen 2014 social research report found much stronger support -- 63 percent --  in England and Wales for withdrawing the nuclear weapons from an independent Scotland.

"Ironically, should Scotland vote 'Yes,' it is public opinion in the rest of the U.K. that would be keen to see Britain’s nuclear weapons removed from Scotland rather than people within Scotland itself -- most likely in many cases out of a wish to ensure that those weapons are still in a location that is fully within the U.K.’s control," states the report.