Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for a Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in London, Britain March 13, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May is preparing to reject Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s demand for an independence referendum on the eve of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, the Times newspaper reported.

“The prime minister has said this would mean a vote while she was negotiating Brexit and I think that can be taken pretty clearly as a message that this timing is completely unacceptable,” the Times quoted an unidentified British government source as saying.

“It would be irresponsible to agree to it and we won’t.”

The newspaper quoted another unidentified May ally as saying that the prime minister was prepared to be more explicit in the coming weeks and say that preparations for a Scottish independence referendum would undermine Britain’s negotiating position with the rest of the EU.