Prime Minister Theresa May says the UK will not stay in the EU “by the back door”
The United Kingdom will not try to stay in the European Union "by the back door", Prime Minister Theresa May has said.
Speaking at the beginning of this morning's cabinet meeting at Chequers, May said that the government will deliver on leaving the EU, repeating her mantra that "Brexit means Brexit".
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May said: "Over the last few weeks – quite a lot of work has been done. We’re going to be having an opportunity today to discuss this.
"We will have an update on Brexit; we’ll be looking at the next steps that we need to take, and we’ll also be looking at the opportunities that are now open to us as we forge a new role for the UK in the world. We must continue to be very clear that “Brexit means Brexit”, that we’re going to make a success of it.
"That means there’s no second referendum; no attempts to sort of stay in the EU by the back door; that we’re actually going to deliver on this."
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However, May also said that her government would discuss social reform at the cabinet meeting, echoing statements she made during her first cabinet where she said her government would not be defined by Brexit.
She said: "We want to be a government and a country that works for everyone, and we’ll be talking about some of the steps that we need to take in order to build that society that works for everyone.
"We’ll be having an update on the state of the economy. 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."