Scotland would vote Yes to independence if another referendum was held on Friday, Alex Salmond has said.
Friday will mark the first anniversary of Scotland rejecting independence at the polls, but the former first minister told BuzzFeed News circumstances had changed so much since last September that there would be a "substantial victory" for the pro-independence side if a referendum was held on 18 September.
Asked whether he thought it would be a Yes vote if a referendum was held on Friday's anniversary, Salmond responded: "Yeah, it would."
"Remember, it wouldn't be announced today and held on Friday. But with a proper campaign, I think it would be [a Yes vote]. We started the Yes campaign on 28%, I think it was 28. We hit 50 with 10 days to go, but over the piece we went from 28% to 45%.
"With a proper campaign, started at an average in the high 40s, then you'd have every prospect of ending up with a substantial victory."
While he said the timescale of a fresh referendum would depend on Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish people, Salmond said the next referendum is being pushed ever closer after the SNP's huge victory in the general election and as a result of the policies of David Cameron and George Osborne.
"All I would say is failure to deliver the Vow is number one," said the former SNP leader. "Then Osborne's foot on the throat of the poor and vulnerable – austerity to the max instead of devo to the max – and him sauntering up to Scotland and saying we'll have 60 years of nuclear missiles without so much as a parliamentary vote.
"Cameron's German roulette with the Euro referendum, Scotland's European future, and the unelectability of the Labour party – they're all factors which are pushing the timescale of a fresh ballot ever closer."