Scottish gov't set to demand legal right to new independence referendum -newspaper

Scottish government workers have been told to ready themselves for a second independence referendum in a notice that said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was set to demand the legal right to another constitutional vote, The Courier newspaper in Dundee, Scotland, reported on Wednesday.

The Scottish government was not immediately available for comment. (http://bit.ly/2lsfo8l)

Support for Scottish independence has risen since British Prime Minister Theresa May came out last month in favour of Britain making a clean break with the European Union when it leaves the bloc, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday.

A majority of those asked in the BMG survey, 51 percent, still opposed independence, the survey showed, but that number fell by 3-1/2 points, while the number supporting secession rose by the same amount, to 49 percent.

In 2014, Scots voted 55 percent to 45 percent to remain in the United Kingdom. But last year's UK-wide vote to leave the EU changed the landscape because a majority of Scots backed staying in the bloc.

A Courier report on Tuesday said May was secretly working on a strategy to deal with Sturgeon's demand for a second independence referendum.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)