LONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May insisted Sunday that Britain will have "control over our borders" after Brexit, suggesting she would be prepared to quit Europe's trading zone to achieve it. "The referendum vote was a vote for us to... bring control into our immigration system. I'm clear that is part of what we need to deliver," she told Sky News in an interview. "We will be able to have control over our borders, of our laws."

German leader Angela Merkel has warned Britain will not be able to remain in the EU's single market while "cherry picking" the terms -- including over the free movement of labour. May on Sunday appeared to suggest she would be willing to quit the trade zone. "Often people talk in terms of, somehow we're leaving the EU but we still want to keep bits of membership of the EU," she said. "We're leaving, we're coming out, we're not going to be a member of the EU any longer."

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday said the prospect of a second independence referendum for her nation was not mere bluster if Britain left the single market. "They will be making a big mistake if they think I am in any way bluffing," she told BBC's Andrew Marr show.

The vote would "give Scotland the opportunity to decide whether it wants to be driven off a hard Brexit cliff by right-wing Tory Brexiteers or whether it wants to take control of its own future," she added.

Experts say a so-called "hard Brexit" would mean Britain withdrawing entirely from Europe's single market and negotiating new trade arrangements in order to impose strict immigration controls.