Theresa May’s single market exit madness

THE EU Referendum gave the Government a mandate to take Britain out of the EU.

It did not give it a mandate to exit the single market and threaten our jobs. Yet that is what Theresa May’s cave-in to the Brextremist wing of her party will do.

After months of indecision during which she was mocked as Theresa Maybe, she has overcompensated by a sudden and reckless lunge towards complete isolation from the EU, even though it takes almost half of our exports which support millions of British jobs.

This is a simply insane policy for a trading nation.

Even Margaret Thatcher, although she hated the EU, was a major architect of the European single market, since she realised that it is the largest market in the world and Britain needs access to it.

Indeed, during the referendum, Leave campaigners evaded Remain accusations that Brexit would damage British jobs and wages by suggesting we could remain members of the single market even though we left the EU.

Yet now Theresa May is plotting a course of complete isolation which would result in the EU imposing tariffs on everything Britain exports to Europe, making British goods uncompetitive.

Our exports will fall as a result and people will lose their jobs. British workers and British companies will pay a high price for her recklessness.