Theresa May denies she is ‘muddled’ as she gives strongest signal yet of single market pullout after Brexit
PM said she hopes to get the 'best possible' trading deal for the UK
THERESA May gave her strongest signal yet yesterday that she is ready to pull Britain out of the EU’s single market after Brexit.
The determined PM, giving her start-of-year TV interview, was grilled on whether her exit negotiation demands will include staying in the free trade area.
And she replied to Sky News: “We mustn’t think about this as somehow we’re coming out of the EU but we want to keep bits of membership.
“We’re leaving, we’re coming out. But we will get the best possible deal for trading with and operating within the single market.”
The declaration suggests the PM is instead hoping to keep British firms’ access to the European market tariff-free by striking a jumbo trade deal.
That would also allow the Government to regain full control of immigration from the EU, which she is “clear that is what we need to deliver”.
Mrs May’s comments delighted “hard Brexit” Leave campaigners last night.
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But they alarmed pro-EU supporters, who insisted losing membership of Europe’s 500million-strong free market would make the nation poorer.
Mrs May also admitted for the first time that planning for Brexit had been more challenging than ministers originally thought.
She told interviewer Sophy Ridge: “There hadn’t been any plans made, so it was important for us to take some time to actually look at the issues.
“The work that has been done has set out very clearly for us how complex this is.”
The PM hit back at the former EU ambassador Sir Ivan Rogers, who walked out of the top Brussels job last week with a stinging attack on No10.
Pledging to lay out more of her plan in a speech later this month, Mrs May insisted: “Our thinking on this isn’t muddled at all. We’ve been taking time.”
Leading Brexiteer and Tory Steve Baker dubbed Mrs May’s single market hint as “great news for the UK”.
He added: “We won’t be clinging on to bits of EU membership.”
Leave campaign boss Michael Gove went even further last night to insist the UK also leaves the EU’s customs union. The former Justice Secretary said it was vital to “deliver a full Brexit, not settle for fake Brexit”.
But Remain campaigners sounded alarm. Former Tory business minister Anna Soubry MP pleaded for the PM to rethink and try to keep the UK in the single market “for the sake of jobs, growth and UK prosperity”.
She said there was “no comparable alternative” to the single market, dubbing it “the world’s largest free trade area”.
Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg accused Mrs May of “putting party before country”, adding: “That’s no way to kick off a ‘shared society’."