Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out the possibility of holding a second referendum on Britain’s exit from the EU.
Speaking at her country retreat Chequers in Buckinghamshire today, May told her ministers that Britain must make a success of Brexit.
There will be no repeat of the UK-wide referendum which saw the country vote by 51.8% to 48.1% to leave the European Union.
Mrs May was on the Remain side of the argument but took power to push through the Brexit agenda.
She told colleagues today that there would be no attempt to stay in the EU “by the back door”.
The PM said: “We have the opportunity to forge a new positive role for the UK in the world, to make sure that we are that Government and country that works for everyone – that everyone can share in the country’s prosperity.”
Mrs May said she will wait at least until the end of 2016 to trigger Article 50, the process by which Britain will start to disentangle itself from the European Union.
But she told Radio 4’s Today programme that she had concerns about “any plans to curb immigration” from Europe.
It’s understood frontbench Conservatives are split over whether the UK should sign up to free movement and pay into EU budgets in order to keep Britain’s membership of the EU single market.
“We’ll be having an update on the state of the economy, the PM said.
“We’ll be looking at how we can work to increase productivity – that’s one of the key issues that we want to address.
“But also how we can get tough on irresponsible behaviour in big business – again making sure that actually everyone is able to share in the country’s prosperity.”
