May signals further doubts over single market membership

The Prime Minister said she wants the “right deal in terms of operating within and trading with” the EU post-Brexit, also telling MPs the negotiations will seek the “maximum possible access”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn reminded the PM she previously warned leaving the single market posed risks to the UK, as he criticised her for pursuing a “shambolic Tory Brexit” to appease backbenchers.

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs May told Mr Corbyn: “What we are going to do is deliver on the vote of the British people and leave the European Union.

“What we are going to do is be ambitious in our negotiations to negotiate the best deal for the British people - and that will include the maximum possible access to the European market for firms to trade with and operate within the European market.

“I’m also clear that the vote of the British people said we should control the movement of people from the EU into the UK - and unlike you, we believe we should deliver on what the British people want.”

She added: “We will be leaving the European Union and in doing that we will negotiate the right deal for the UK, which means the right deal in terms of operating within and trading with the European market.

“That’s what matters to companies here in the UK, and that’s what we’re going to be ambitious about delivering.”

Mr Corbyn, in his first PMQs since winning a second leadership election, turned to the words of Tory former chancellor Ken Clarke as he told Mrs May: “What he said was, in his own inimitable way, ‘The reason the pound keeps zooming south is that absolutely nobody has the faintest idea exactly what we’re going to put in place’.