Manchester set to become part of...Scotland

An online poll revealed that 72% of people want the city to become independent

Canal Street in Manchester city centre. The area is surrounded by remnants of the past and the Industrial Revolution (Getty Images)

A campaign to make Manchester part of Scotland has gathered momentum after a surprising 72 per cent of respondents voted in favour of secession.

The results of an online poll conducted by the Manchester Evening News revealed that thousands of people want the city to be ruled from Edinburgh, rather than London.

A Twitter campaign with the hashtag #TakeUsWithYouScotland is being used on social media, and a Change.org petition has already been signed by 17,000 people.

'New Scotland' would be drawn along the mouth of The Humber and the River Dee, according to the Change.org petition (Manchester Evening News)

The petition is titled: "Allow the north of England to secede from the UK and join Scotland."

It goes on to explain that deliberations in Westminster are becoming "increasingly irrelevant" to the north of England, and claims that those living in northern cities feel "far greater affinity with their Scottish counterparts", such as Glasgow and Edinburgh, than with the "ideologies of the London-centric south".

Media City, Manchester – The waterfront centre for digital creativity, learning and leisure, overlooking the Manchester Ship Canal

It also criticises the "endless parade of old Etonians lining the frontbenches of the House of Commons" - and calls for the north of England to join the newly independent Scotland and "regain control over its own destiny".

It goes on to demand that, should the call for independence be recognised, the border between England and the so-called "New Scotland" be drawn along a line running between the mouth of The Humber and the River Dee.

Some of the people who put their names to the petition left impassioned reasons for signing.

The results of an online poll conducted by the Manchester Evening News (Manchester Evening News)

Elizabeth Rogerson, who gave her location as Glasgow, said: "It would solve all of this country's problems if we could dig a big trench around London and push it out to sea with a long stick. It can be a horrible little tax retreat for the ultra-rich and we can get back to having a proper country."

While Holly Johnson, from Newcastle, wrote: "The UK isn't London. I'd rather party with the Scots any day. Keep the North together!"

And Jo Tomalin, from Sheffield, said: "Scottish Nationalists are able to state sensible policies that parties in England think are electoral suicide."

Michael Anchor, from Liverpool, added: "Fed up with the South looking down at the North."