London — The risks to Britain of its vote to leave the European Union (EU) were laid bare on Monday when Scotland’s nationalist government announced a new independence vote, pre-empting this week’s expected start of the Brexit process. Prime Minister Theresa May could announce as early as Tuesday that she is triggering the Article 50 process of withdrawing from the EU, putting Britain on course to leave by March 2019 after four decades of membership. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has long warned that largely pro-European Scotland would not accept a damaging break with the EU — and on Monday she made good on her threat. "I will now take the steps necessary to make sure that Scotland will have a choice at the end of this process," she said at a hastily convened press conference in Edinburgh. This would be "a choice of whether to follow the UK to a hard Brexit or to become an independent country, able to secure a real partnership of equals with the rest of the UK and our own ...
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