Trouble brews for UK PM

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon raised the prospect of a second independence referendum being held by 2019 as she accused the British government of ignoring Scottish interests in its desire to achieve a "hard" exit from the European union.

Speaking at the start of her ruling Scottish National Party's (SNP) bi-annual conference yesterday, she said her devolved government would publish a draft independence referendum bill as early as next week.

Sturgeon said she wanted the bill in place to give her the possibility of calling another referendum before Britain is expected to formally leave the EU in March 2019.

"If you think for one single second that I'm not serious about doing what it takes to protect Scotland's interests, then think again," she said in a warning to Prime Minister Theresa May.

She accused the British government of "constitutional vandalism" by ignoring Scotland's voice over Brexit.

The SNP is by far the dominant Scottish party, having won 56 of the 59 designated seats for Scotland in the UK parliament in the 2015 general election.

Since Scotland voted to keep its EU membership and the UK as a whole voted to leave in June, Sturgeon has frequently said that independence must continue to be an option to protect the nation's separate democratic voice.

Sturgeon said she would publish proposals for Scotland to stay in the single market -- a hot-button issue in Britain after government ministers hinted the country may have to leave it if it wants to impose stricter controls on EU immigration.

Meanwhile, the battle over Brexit reached the High Court yesterday in a legal challenge to Theresa May's right to start negotiations for Britain to leave the EU without a vote in parliament.

The move could delay Brexit if successful and set up an unprecedented constitutional face-off between the courts and the government.

The case seeks to challenge May's assertion that she has the right to trigger notification of Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which would spark two years of negotiations on Britain's departure from the bloc.