Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, said today it would be “democratically unacceptable” for Scotland to be taken out of the European Union against the will of its voters

Nicola Sturgeon began the process of taking Scotland out of the United Kingdom yesterday as she railed against what she described as the “unacceptable” decision of the rest of the UK to vote for Brexit.

In a move which will be seen as a direct challenge both to the authority of the Westminster government and to the referendum result itself, the first minister ordered her staff to start drawing up legislation for a fresh independence ballot in Scotland.

Scots voted by a comfortable 62 per cent to 38 per cent margin to stay in the EU yesterday but this result was overwhelmed by the decision in the rest of the UK.

As a result, Scotland will find itself out of the EU, even though a