Brexit to raise chances of Scottish independence: William Hague

British exit from the EU (Brexit) could lead to the breakup of Britain, former British Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned.

Hague, now a member of the House of Lords, also said British withdrawal from the EU could gravely weaken the bloc.

"We will have to ask, disliking so many aspects of it as we do, whether we really want to weaken it, and at the same time increase the chances, if the UK left the EU, of Scotland leaving the UK," he wrote in an article published by the Daily Telegraph newspaper on Wednesday.

He said that Scottish nationalists would "jump at the chance to reverse the argument of last year's referendum" if Britain decides to leave the EU.

"They would have the pretext for their second referendum, and the result of it could well be too close to call," he warned.

The former foreign secretary argued that the EU would be weaker without the United Kingdom.

"It (EU) would lose the fifth largest economy of the world, the continent's greatest centre of finance, and one of its only two respected military powers," he noted.

In the article, he claimed that the west still needs the EU to "provide the safe harbor for the docking of fragile democracies" in Europe.

"To end up destroying the United Kingdom and gravely weakening the European Union would not be a very clever day's work," he concluded.

Hague served as British foreign secretary from 2010 to 2014. British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to hold an "in or out" referendum on whether Britain should withdraw from the EU by 2017. Endit