Britain will quit the EU single market when it leaves the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday, in a decisive speech that set a course for a clean break with the world’s largest trading bloc.
Setting out a vision that could determine Britain’s future for generations and the shape of the EU itself, May answered criticism that she has been coy about her strategy with a 12-point plan towards what has been dubbed a “hard Brexit”.
May promised to seek the greatest possible access to European markets, but said Britain would aim to establish its own free trade deals with countries far beyond Europe, and impose limits on immigration from the continent.
For the first time, she acknowledged that those measures would require withdrawing from the market of 500 million people, founded on principles of free movement of goods and people.
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