Theresa May rules out remaining in the EU single market
The British prime minister also said maintaining the common travel area with Ireland was a priority
British prime ministerTheresa May said the UK cannot possibly remain in the European single market as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all. Her comments were made in a key speech in London this morning in which she set out 12 key priorities for the Brexit negotiations.
In the long-awaited speech, she also announced parliament would get a vote on the final deal agreed between the UK and the European Union and promised to push for the "greatest possible" access to the single market following Brexit.
“I want to be clear: what I am proposing cannot mean membership of the single market. Instead we seek the greatest possible access to it though a new comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement," May said, raising the possibility that the UK might make an "appropriate contribution" to retain access to the single market although she said the days of the UK "paying vast sums of money to the EU every day" would soon be over.
May, who spoke to Taoiseach Enda Kenny by telephone last night, also pledged the British government would work to maintain the "common travel area" between the UK and Ireland.
"Our guiding principle must be to ensure that as we leave the European Union no new barriers to living or doing business within our own union are created," the prime minister told her audience.
"The United Kingdom will share a land border with the EU and maintaining that common travel area with the Republic of Ireland will be an important priority for the UK in the talks ahead," she said.
May also said the UK wanted to a "good friend and neighbour" but cautioned that no deal for Britain was better than a bad deal as she warned against a "punitive deal" that punished Britain, describing such an approach as "an act of calamitous self-harm".
May also said she was not seeking an "unlimited" transitional period during which the UK remains bound by EU rules, describing this as a form of "political purgatory". But she said there could be individual interim arrangements to minimise disruption to certain sectors of the economy.
On the customs union, she said the UK wanted to be able to negotiate trade deals with countries around the world but she also wanted cross-border trade with the European Union to be as free and "frictionless" as possible.
The pound, which dropped below $1.20 against the dollar yesterday amid growing fears of a 'hard' Brexit, bounced back following the speech to trade at $1.2322 by 13:00 p.m. The euro was trading below 87 pence against the pound.
The prime minister also said that EU nationals would continue to be "welcome" to come to the UK after Brexit and hoped that this would be reciprocated. But she dismissed suggestions that the UK could retain an associate or partial membership of the EU, insisting it "cannot be half in and half out".
What she wants is a "new, constructive partnership" based on shared interests with the UK restoring its sovereignty and self-determination. May also said Brexit would not lead to a "wider unravelling" of the European project and insisted that she would not support that.
"It remains overwhelmingly and compellingly in Britain's national interest that the EU should succeed," she said.
