The Scottish government has formally asked UK Prime Minister Theresa May to allow it hold a second independence referendum following the beginning of Britain’s exit process from the European Union.

Axar.az reports that Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made the request in a letter she wrote to May on Friday, two days after London wrote to Brussels announcing the UK's formal withdrawal from the EU.

"I am... writing to begin early discussions between our governments to agree an Order under section 30 of the Scotland Act 1998 that would enable a referendum to be legislated for by the Scottish Parliament," Sturgeon wrote in the letter.

"The people of Scotland must have the right to choose our own future -- in short, to exercise our right of self determination," wrote Sturgeon, the leader of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP).

Sturgeon tweeted a picture in the day, sitting on a couch at her official residence in Edinburgh and writing the Section 30 letter on a fresh referendum vote for her country.