Scotland's leader delivered a twist to Britain's European Union exit drama on Monday, announcing that she will seek authority to hold a new independence referendum in the next two years because the United Kingdom is dragging Scotland out of the EU against its will.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that she would move quickly to give voters a new chance to leave the UK because Scotland was being forced into a "hard Brexit" that it didn't vote for. Britons decided in a June 23 referendum to leave the EU, but Scots voted by 62 to 38 percent to remain.

Scotland must not be "taken down a path that we do not want to go down without a choice", Sturgeon said.

The move drew a quick rebuke from Prime Minister Theresa May, who said a second referendum would be hugely disruptive and is not justified because evidence shows most Scottish voters oppose a second referendum.

She said Sturgeon's Scottish National Party is guilty of "tunnel vision".