Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday insisted 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 yesterday 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.”
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.
May has come under increasing pressure to reveal more detailed plans about her Brexit strategy, and promised to do so during a series of speeches in “the coming weeks”.
“When people voted in the referendum on the June 23, they voted to leave the European Union, but they also voted for change and this year, 2017, is the year in which we start to make that happen,” she told Sky News.
The prime minister, who took power after David Cameron resigned in the wake of the Brexit vote, stressed that Britain could still secure favourable access for businesses trading within the EU, although critics warn that negotiations will be fraught and complex.
“We will be working to get the best possible deal in the trading relationship with the EU,” May said. She also rejected last week’s parting shot delivered by Ivan Rogers, Britain’s outgoing top EU ambassador, that the government does not have a clear plan.
May said her “thinking on this isn’t muddled at all” and accused the previous administration of not preparing a strategy in case of Brexit.
“What I am talking about is getting the right relationship for the UK with the EU. We mustn’t think about this as somehow we are coming out of membership but we want to keep bits of membership.”
May has promised to activate Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, triggering a two-year period in which Britain will negotiate its departure from the EU, by the end of March.
If no deal is reached, Britain will automatically leave the EU’s institutions, with reciprocal tariffs likely placed on businesses in the UK and the EU.
Increasingly under fire, May, will use a speech on Monday to try to switch the focus from Brexit to her vision of a “shared society” which protects those families who are just managing.
“We must...deliver real social reform across every layer of society so that those who feel that the system is stacked against them — those just above the threshold that attracts the government’s focus today yet those who are by no means rich or well off — are also given the help they need,” she will say.
Prime Minister Theresa May arrives to be interviewed by Sophy Ridge on Sky News, during the Ridge on Sunday programme, in London, yesterday.
