Updated March 17, 2017 01:46:00

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May has been warned time is running out to come up with a compromise deal to stop Scotland holding another independence referendum.

Speaking to Lateline just days after the Scottish nationalists announced plans for a second independence referendum, Scotland's former first minister Alex Salmond said they were determined to stay in the European single market, with or without the rest of Britain.

He said the United Kingdom could avoid another Scottish independence vote if the Prime Minister was able to negotiate a Brexit deal that allowed Scotland to keep that access to European trading markets.

"The door is still open, but it's closing. Theresa May has a couple of weeks before the end of March in order to come to her senses and to make the concessions that [First Minister] Nicola Sturgeon has been asking for," he said.

"I don't think she's going to do it. This is a pretty narrow-vision Prime Minister. She's set in her ways, she's determined to barge on regardless.

"I think she's going to get her comeuppance and I think there will be a referendum in Scotland and I think Nicola Sturgeon will win it."

'Scotland is a country, not a county'

Mr Salmond said there would be a backlash against the Conservative party if the Prime Minister tried to block a Scottish referendum until after Brexit negotiations were completed in two years' time.

Scotland could get another chance to vote on independence from the UK — but this time Brexit has raised the stakes even higher, Barbara Miller writes.

"They're not a strong government, they're certainly not strong enough to defy the will of the Scottish people," he said.

"What people in London have to remember, and what people in Australia know, is that Scotland is a country, it's not a county in England."

Ms May told the Scottish Government on Thursday (local time) that now was "not the time" for another independence referendum, saying it would be unfair to ask people to vote without knowing the result of Brexit talks.

She did not say outright that she would block a Scottish bid to wage another referendum, but said it was time to work together to win the "right deal" for Britain in the coming EU talks.

Ms Sturgeon was quick to shoot back, saying on Twitter any attempt to block a second referendum would be undemocratic, and would prove Ms May's Conservative party "fears the verdict of the Scottish people".

Scottish-Euro ties run back to William Wallace

Scotland overwhelmingly voted to stay within the European Union when last year's Brexit referendum was held.

Mr Salmond said he was confident most Scottish independence supporters were also pro-Europe.

Photo: Scotland (in yellow) voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU when the Brexit referendum was held. (BBC)

"The independence movement has always had a European dimension," he said.

"William Wallace, our greatest hero, so superbly played by Mel Gibson in Braveheart, when he won his greatest battle at Stirling Bridge in 1297 the first thing he did after that amazing victory was not to have a Ceilidh — a party.

"He wrote a letter to the Hanseatic League, which was the medieval forbearer of the single marketplace and said: 'Look, we're back in charge, the English have been thrown out, we want our trading concessions back'.

"So even in 1297, William Wallace was writing the Lubeck Letter and saying we want Scotland to be trading freely with our European partners."

Mr Salmond would not say if Ms Sturgeon would have to follow in his footsteps and stand down as Scottish leader if she lost any independence vote.

"One thing she won't be contemplating is losing," he said.

"She's got every expectation of winning this referendum and I believe she shall."

ABC/Reuters

Topics: world-politics, scotland, united-kingdom

First posted March 16, 2017 22:27:47