Scottish vote drive gets fund of US$5m
Print Edition
A Scottish couple who won the lottery have donated at least 3 million pounds (US$5 million) of their winnings to the campaign for an independent Scotland, making them Britain’s biggest political donors, a newspaper said yesterday.
Colin Weir, a former cameraman, and his wife Chris, a former nurse, are from a seaside resort near the Scottish city of Glasgow and won 161,653,000 pounds in the Euromillions draw in 2011.
The Sunday Times, which is in the process of compiling its annual list of Britain’s richest people, said its analysis had shown that the couple had given at least 3 million pounds to those campaigning for an independent Scotland ahead of a referendum on September 18.
Polls suggest Scotland will vote to reject independence but the contest is tightening a little and backers of a breakaway have made some ground in recent months.
The British government minister responsible for Scotland said last month that nationalists had a huge “war chest” to fund their campaign and appeared more “hungry” for victory.
The Scottish National Party and the “Yes Scotland” campaign had received the couple’s donation, the Sunday Times reported, making the Weirs Britain’s biggest political donors in the last 15 months.
By contrast, the newspaper said the campaign to keep Scotland part of the United Kingdom — “Better Together” — had got just 863,000 pounds from a eight people, headed by Ian Taylor, CEO of Vitol, the energy trader.
The report was published as an ICM poll for the Scotland on Sunday newspaper put the pro-independence camp on 39 percent, flat from a month earlier, and the anti-independence camp on 42 percent, down four percentage points.
A separate Survation poll for the Sunday Post newspaper put the pro-independence side on 38 percent, up one percentage point on 10 days earlier, and the anti-independence side on 46 percent, one percentage point lower.
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